Binscarth is an unincorporated urban community in the

Municipality of Russell – Binscarth The Municipality of Russell – Binscarth is a rural municipality (RM) in the Parkland Region of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the far western part of the province and shares a border with the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan. History ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

. It is located approximately northwest of

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name *Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

, south from Russell, and east of the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

border. Prior to 1 January 2015, it was designated as a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

. The economic base of Binscarth and area is a mix of agriculture and service businesses. Major industrial employers in the area include three

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

mines nearby in Saskatchewan (

Nutrien Nutrien is a Canadian fertilizer company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It is the largest producer of potash and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in the world. It has over 2,000 retail locations across North America, S ...

Rocanville Rocanville is a community in Saskatchewan, Canada, and home to the largest oil can in the world. It is home of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) potash mine which recently announced a $1.6 billion expansion. Rocanville is also th ...

, and

Mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

K1 in Esterhazy and K2 in

Gerald Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iris ...

) and a

canola Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...

crushing plant A Crushing plant is one-stop crushing installation, which can be used for rock crushing, garbage crushing, building materials crushing and other similar operations. Crushing plants may be either fixed or mobile. A crushing plant has different sta ...

( Bunge) at Harrowby Manitoba. Current

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player

Cody McLeod Wesley Cody McLeod (born June 26, 1984) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger currently serving as a player development coach for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League. As an undrafted player, McLeod previously played i ...

was born in Binscarth.

History

The community was originally formed around a stock farm established by the Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company some three miles northwest of the current townsite. It was named after the Company founder's ancestral home in the Orkney islands. When the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway (later

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...

) was built through the area in 1886, the railway station was established at the current site of SE15-19-28W, and the community soon relocated itself there, incorporating as a

in 1917. In 2015, Binscarth

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

with the town of Russell and the

Rural Municipality of Russell The Rural Municipality of Russell is a former rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was originally incorporated as a rural municipality on August 15, 1881. It ceased on January 1, 2015 as a result of its provincially mand ...

to form the Municipality of Russell-Binscarth.

Seekaywye

In 1964, Binscarth residents narrowly defeated (by ten votes) a proposal to rename itself ''Seekaywye'', after the

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

radio station

CKY CKY may refer to: * CKY (band), American rock band, formerly "Camp Kill Yourself" ** ''CKY'' (video series), named after the band **CKY crew, people involved in the video series and related projects *CKY-DT, a television station in Winnipeg, Manito ...

. If successful, the station would have promoted Binscarth/Seekaywye as a vacation resort. CKY also offered the same deal to

La Riviere, Manitoba LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

, who also said no. For many years, the radio frequency of CKY 580 was remembered in local business names the 580 Hotel and 580 Plumbing and Heating.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Binscarth had a population of 420 living in 199 of its 213 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 407. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Attractions

The Binscarth & District Gordon Orr Memorial Museum has a large collection of Native artifacts. The museum is also one of only a handful of museums to exhibit an extinct bison skull. Also on display is a Massey-Harris tractor, a binder, a

seed drill A seed drill is a device used in agriculture that sows seeds for crops by positioning them in the soil and burying them to a specific depth while being dragged by a tractor. This ensures that seeds will be distributed evenly. The seed drill sow ...

, and a 6-horsepower International Engine dating from 1905. There is also a general store, summer kitchen, chapel, and school room. The museum is open in July and August. Binscarth is home to the "largest outdoor swimming pool on the

Yellowhead highway The Yellowhead Highway (french: Route Yellowhead) is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western ...

." The pool, park and campground are located just south of the community in the Silver Creek valley.

Climate

References

*Billboard magazine, June 6, 1964, page 14 "CKY given a No vote"*

External links

Binscarth Homepage
{{Manitoba Designated places in Manitoba Unincorporated communities in Parkland Region, Manitoba Unincorporated urban communities in Manitoba Former villages in Manitoba Populated places disestablished in 2015