Neepawa is a town in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Canada located 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 ...

at the intersection with

Highway 5 Route 5, or Highway 5, may refer to routes in the following countries: International * Asian Highway 5 * European route E05 * European route E005 Argentina * National Route 5 Australia New South Wales * M5 Motorway (Sydney) * The De ...

. its

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

was 5,685. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is bordered by the

Municipality of North Cypress – Langford The Municipality of North Cypress – Langford is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located northeast and east of the City of Brandon. The Town of Neepawa borders the RM to the north. Canadian Forces Base ...

and

Rural Municipality of Rosedale Rosedale is a rural municipality in the province of Manitoba in Western Canada. The southeast corner of Riding Mountain National Park overlaps the northwest corner of the RM, and comprises about one-sixth of Rosedale's territory. The Town of N ...

. Neepawa is the self-proclaimed Lily capital of the world in part because of its Lily Festival.

History

In the many years before

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an settlement, the lands around Neepawa were primarily used by the

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

and the

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...

. Native peoples in the area followed a regular cycle by following the

Plains Bison The Plains bison (''Bison bison bison'') is one of two subspecies/ecotypes of the American bison, the other being the wood bison (''B. b. athabascae''). A natural population of Plains bison survives in Yellowstone National Park (the Yellowstone ...

to take shelter in the areas north of Neepawa in the winter, and then heading south again across the plains and beyond Neepawa in the summer. The town name of Neepawa comes from the Cree word for "Land of Plenty", the name was first used around 1873. Prior to settlement, the only

ans in the area were primarily

fur traders The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

, many people made their way through the area on the North Fort Ellice Trail which went from the Red River to

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

. It was on this trail that a group of settlers from

Listowel, Ontario Listowel is an unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada, located in the Municipality of North Perth. Incorporated as the Town of Listowel in 1875, it was dissolved in 1998 following amalgamation with several other communities in the northern ...

eventually decided to settle in 1877, where the Stony and Boggy creeks meet. The Neepawa area was in what was then known as "The Northwest Territories", just to the west of the 1870 boundary of Manitoba. During the next 30 years, many settlers came to live in the area. The first settlers were from the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

. Eastern European settlers also came from countries such as

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

and built the Hun Valley Settlement near Neepawa. Neepawa only joined Manitoba when the western edge of the then " postage stamp province" was expanded to its present western borders in 1881. John A. Davidson and Jonathon J. Hamilton arrived in the town in 1880, they were the first real business men of the town buying land and surveying them into lots. In 1881 John Hamilton and John Davidson built a store and a grist mill near the junction of Boggy and Stoney Creeks. Like many western Manitoba towns at the time, Neepawa eagerly await the arrival of the railway in the 1880s. Sometime after the railway reached

Gladstone, Manitoba Gladstone is an unincorporated urban community in the Municipality of WestLake – Gladstone within the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba that held town status prior to January 1, 2015. It is located on the Manitob ...

in 1882, Davidson and Hamilton offered the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway (which was leased to

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 spont ...

) a land grant and a financial bonus of $16,000 to construct their line within the town limits and the railway agreed to build their station within Neepawa. Soon a village grew and on the 23 of September, 1883 the town of Neepawa was incorporated.

David Howard Harrison David Howard Harrison (June 1, 1843 – September 8, 1905) was a politician, farmer and physician. He was born in the township of London, Canada West, and moved to Manitoba in 1882. He and his family soon established themselves as substanti ...

who owned a private bank in Neepawa was elected Premier of Manitoba in 1887. Neepawa's first hospital was completed in 1904 and had the capacity for 20 patients. The hospital included a nursing school. Neepawa's first school opened in 1881. It was a three-story building finally completed in 1898 and used until 1928. The Neepawa Salt Company mined salt here from 1932 until 1970. Author Margaret Laurence wrote several books through the 1960s and 1970s, depicting the town under the name of

Manawaka Manawaka is a fictional town in the Canadian province of Manitoba, frequently used as a setting in novels and short stories by Margaret Laurence. The town was based on Laurence's real-life hometown of Neepawa, and should not be confused with the rea ...

. On May 12, 2010 Neepawa was the host of Manitoba's 140th birthday party. The town was chosen as the site of the festivities as a result of winning a contest within the province.

Geography

Neepawa lies on the

Manitoba Escarpment The Manitoba Escarpment, or the Western Manitoba Uplands, are a range of hills along the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. The eastern slopes of the range are considered to be a scarp. They were created by glacial scouring and formed the western s ...

, the rolling hills around Neepawa are typical of the escarpment. Neepawa lies within the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

, the region around Neepawa is defined as

Aspen parkland Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretchi ...

. Although Neepawa is part of the prairies the area to the north is heavily forested

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

land.

Riding Mountain National Park Riding Mountain National Park is a national park in Manitoba, Canada. The park is located within Treaty 2 Territory and sits atop the Manitoba Escarpment. Consisting of a protected area , the forested parkland stands in sharp contrast to the su ...

and Duck Mountain Provincial Park lie to the north, are part of this parkland, and are also an extension of the escarpment. The

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

which extends all the way across Canada, is also found to the north of Neepawa. Spruce Woods Provincial Park is located about 60 km south of the town. Neepawa lies at the source of the

Whitemud River The Whitemud River is a small, highly meandering river in southwest Manitoba. It begins at the junction of Stony Creek and Boggy Creek in Neepawa, and flows east to Arden, Gladstone, Westbourne, discharging into Lake Manitoba at Lynchs Point. It ...

, it is also about 40 km east of the

Little Saskatchewan River The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It jo ...

, a tributary of the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sin ...

which is 60 km south of the town. The town is also about 60 km west of

Lake Manitoba Lake Manitoba (french: Lac Manitoba) is the 14th largest lake in Canada and the 33rd largest lake in the world with a total area of . It is located within the Canadian province of Manitoba about northwest of the province's capital, Winnipeg, at ...

, one of the largest lakes in Manitoba.

Climate

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 Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Neepawa had a population of 5,685 living in 1,866 of its 1,946 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 4,609. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Economy

The economy of Neepawa and the region is strongly dependent on agriculture. The rolling fields in the area support many types of crops and livestock operations. Neepawa serves as a major agricultural service centre for many of the producers in the region. More prominently, growers in Neepawa produce some of the finest and most diverse

lilies ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

in the world. As of 2009 over 2,000 kinds of Lily were grown locally. These flowers are shipped directly from Neepawa to many of the major international floral markets. Neepawa proclaims itself the "Lily capital of the world" because of this. Neepawa also attracts a number of tourists throughout the year in part because of the lilies. An estimated 12,000 people visit the Lily Festival and Neepawa each July. As well as being an agricultural centre, Neepawa's businesses serve as a shopping and retail centre for much of the area's residents.

Attractions

The Margaret Laurence Home is a designated Provincial Heritage Site and a Level 2 Museum. This is the house where Margaret Laurence grew up in Neepawa as a youth. In addition the Riverside Cemetery in Neepawa is the resting place of Margaret Laurence. The cemetery's Davidson Memorial was the signature of Laurence's book ''

The Stone Angel ''The Stone Angel'' is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Laurence. First published in 1964 by McClelland and Stewart, it is perhaps the best-known of Laurence's series of five novels set in the fictitious town of Manawaka, Manitoba. In parall ...

''. This cemetery is also the furthest west in which any ''Titanic'' passenger was buried. Four young men from the village of Fritham in Hampshire, England, went down with the Titanic in 1912: Lewis Hickman (aged 32), Leonard Mark Hickman (aged 24), Stanley George Hickman (aged 21), and Ambrose Hood (aged 21). A gravestone in memory of the Hickman brothers can be found in Riverside Cemetery. The Beautiful Plains Museum is a heritage railway station that was the home of the museum since 1981. The original railway station was built in 1901. The Lily Festival in Neepawa first began in 1996 and today features the over 2,000 different kinds of Lily that are grown in Neepawa. Neepawa sees around 12,000 visitors in the town during the Lily Festival each July. The Roxy Theatre Neepawa is a community-run theatre that was built in 1906. The theatre hosts live arts and films. The Roxy Theatre was the setting for the 2015 film ''Amityville Playhouse'' (UK/Europe release) or ''Amityville Theatre'' (U.S. release). Both the Roxy and the Towns Court House were used in the film (as were other locations in the town) which was shot in September 2014.

Sports

Junior and senior sports teams in Neepawa include: * Neepawa Titans (

Manitoba Junior Hockey League The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Manitoba and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The MJHL consists of thirteen teams all based ...

) * Neepawa Cubs (Manitoba Junior B Baseball League) * Neepawa Farmers (SR Hockey in THHL)

Government

Neepawa is governed by a town council consisting of a mayor and six councilors. The town council is elected to a four-year term. The current Mayor of Neepawa is Blake McCutcheon. The Deputy Mayor is Brian Hedley and the remaining council consists of Marijka Kostenchuk, Darren Pudlo, Murray Parrott, Jason Nadeau and Darryl Gerrard.

Transportation

Neepawa is located along

Highway 16 Route 16, or Highway 16, can refer to: International * Asian Highway 16 * European route E16 * European route E016 Australia - Thompsons Road (Victoria) - South Australia Canada ;Parts of the Trans-Canada Highway: *Yellowhead Hi ...

(the

) and

(the Parks Route). Neepawa Airport features a runway that is able to service air ambulance and small jets.

Education

Hazel M. Kellington Elementary School (named after longtime teacher) has about 350 students and the Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute has about 500 students. Neepawa Nursery School teaches 3- and 4-year-old children. Neepawa is part of the Beautiful Plains School Division. Assiniboine Community College has a campus in Neepawa and offers various post-secondary courses.

Media

Radio

CJBP-FM CJBP-FM is a Canadian radio station, that broadcasts at 97.1 FM in Neepawa, Manitoba. The station broadcasts a country music format. Its studio location is 290 Davidson Street in Neepawa. The station is transmitting with 3200 watts from the Man ...

97.1

Television

* NAC TV channel 30

Notable people

Gordon Beard Gordon Wilbert Beard (September 27, 1921 – November 12, 1972) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1963 to 1968, and an independent member from 1969 to 1972. Born ...

, politician *

Bertram Brooker Bertram Richard Brooker, (March 31, 1888 – March 22, 1955) was one of Canada's pioneer abstract painters.Joan Murray. Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century'. Dundurn; November 1999. . p. 40-41. A self-taught polymath, in addition to being a ...

, award-winning novelist *

Shawn Byram Shawn D. Byram (born September 12, 1968) is a Canadian former ice hockey left winger who played five games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks between the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons. The ...

, former professional hockey player *

Glen Cummings (politician) James Glen Cummings (born April 12, 1944) is a farmer and former politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1986 to 2007, and was as a cabinet minister in the government of Gary Filmon. The s ...

, politician * Fred Langdon Davis, politician * Triston Grant, former professional hockey player *

Charles F. Goodeve Sir Charles Frederick Goodeve (21 February 1904 – 7 April 1980) was a Canadian chemist and pioneer in operations research. During World War II, he was instrumental in developing the "hedgehog" antisubmarine warfare weapon and the degaussing me ...

, chemist *

Shane Hnidy Shane Hnidy ( ; born November 8, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. Between 2000 and 2011, he played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Anaheim Ducks, ...

, former professional hockey player * James H. Howden, politician * Mark Kolesar, former professional hockey player * Margaret Laurence, novelist * Bill Mikkelson, former professional hockey player * Kelly Robertson, professional curler * Welford Russell, composer and surgeon *

Bill Stilwell Bill Stilwell is a Canadian nature writer. He is the author of three national best-seller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. ...

, author *

David Zieroth Dale Zieroth (born November 7, 1946, in Neepawa, Manitoba)Town of Neepawa
{{Authority control Towns in Manitoba Populated places established in 1883 1883 establishments in Manitoba