History of Winnipeg

The area around Winnipeg has been settled by aboriginals for over 6,000 years. Winnipeg is located where the east-west Assiniboine River and the north-south Red River join together, about 60kms south of Lake Winnipeg. The name Winnipeg comes from the Cree Indian name given to the lake 64kms north, meaning ‘win’ (muddy) and ‘nipee’ (water).

Founding the city

In 1612, Captain Thomas Button surveyed the lands along the western shoreline of the Hudson's Bay on the order of the King of England. In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company was given the territory, draining into the bay area for fur trading. The permanent settlement started as a trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company, and was known as Fort Garry.

Lord Selkirk, a Scottish nobleman, was granted land in the area in order to found an agricultural colony. The colony was beset by floods and grasshoppers, and was forced to compete with the natives for buffalo meat. The area's Metis (mixed native and European blood), employed by the Northwest Company, worried that the settlement's growth would affect their buffalo hunting. In 1816, they attacked the settlement and the governor, and 20 people were killed. The issue was finally resolved in 1820, when the Northwest Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company. 

The city grew as a result of its strategic position, halfway between Lake Winnipeg and the American border. In 1873, when the city was incorporated, there were 1,869 inhabitants. In 1878, the first steam railway connection arrived from St Paul, Minnesota, to a point just across the river from Winnipeg. Winnipeg developed to become the largest grain centre on the American continent. Due to its superb rail connections with the US and eastern Canada, it also became the financial, commercial, wholesale and manufacturing hub of the new West.

The World wars

A wave of immigrants, high wheat prices, abundant capital and better farming techniques contributed to Winnipeg becoming western Canada’s largest city. Following WWI however, low wheat prices put a halt to economic growth, and the Great Depression followed, lasting until 1940. 

Better times came back to Winnipeg with WWII, which brought more demand for agricultural and manufactured products, and because of the value of prairie towns to the Commonwealth Air Training Programme, which trained fighter and bomber pilots from many British Commonwealth countries. A second flood of immigrants came at the end of WWII, and they settled mostly in the cities, including Winnipeg. Winnipeg grew rapidly, benefiting from cheap Manitoba hydro-electric power and abundant fresh water as well as its location near the geographical centre of North America.

Modern times

In 1972, the unified City of Winnipeg was created by merging 13 municipalities, towns and cities. Since then, the city has matured and developed. In 1967, and again in 1999, it staged the Pan-American Games, the third largest athletic competition in the world. The North American Free Trade Agreement has also enabled Winnipeg's industries and consumers to benefit from a trade corridor between the city and Mexico, via several large US cities.