Winnipeg Beach is a town in the

Interlake Region The Interlake Region is an informal geographic region of the Canadian province of Manitoba that lies roughly between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The region comprises 14 rural municipalities, one city (th ...

, in the Canadian province of

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 ...

. The town was founded in 1900 by Sir William Whyte and is located at the junction of Highway 9 and Highway 229 on the southwestern shore of

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Its southern end is about north of t ...

, about north of

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, ...

. It is bordered by the

Rural Municipality of Gimli The Rural Municipality of Gimli is a rural municipality located in the Interlake Region of south-central Manitoba, Canada, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. It is about north of the provincial capital Winnipeg. The rural municipality's popul ...

, the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, and Dunnottar as well as Lake Winnipeg. Nearby towns are Ponemah, Whytewold, and Matlock (all to the south), Gimli, and Sandy Hook, (located to the north), as well as Teulon, and Selkirk. Its permanent population is 1,145 ().

History

In 1900, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) purchased of undeveloped shoreline 65 kilometres north of Winnipeg on the southwestern shore of Lake Winnipeg and commenced construction of a resort town. In addition to the attraction of a three kilometre stretch of sandy beach, the CPR also built and offered an array of accommodation, recreation, and amusement facilities, including a prominent dance hall. In the early 1900s, ritzy hotels lined the main street of Winnipeg Beach. Piers, parks and picnic grounds were constructed to accommodate the weekend masses that would travel to Winnipeg Beach from the nearby capital city. By 1913, the summer retreat had become so popular that the CPR had 13 trains running the line between the beach and the City of Winnipeg. The famous Moonlight Special returned to the city at midnight every Saturday for fifty years. The round trip fare was only fifty cents. A boardwalk took strollers along the beach to the carnival concessions and cottages. A wooden roller coaster was one of the largest in the country at the time and carried hundreds of passengers on a busy day. The Pavilion housed a dance floor, reputed to be the largest in Western Canada. The romance of Winnipeg Beach began to wane during the 1950s, and although the beach itself still remained a popular destination, in 1964 the amusement park was permanently closed.

Water tower

Of the many recreation and railway related structures erected by the CPR at Winnipeg Beach, only the steel water tower survives. It was designed and constructed in 1928 by the Vulcan Iron Works Ltd. of Winnipeg. Utilitarian in design and appearance, the tower supported a capacity tank and provided a source of pressurized water for the CPR steam locomotives and fire protection services for the resort's facilities. Non-operational since the resort closed, the structure is the best example of only five surviving riveted-steel water towers in Manitoba. As in its heyday, the tower is a prominent visual landmark in and around the beach community.

Today

After the closure of the resort and amusement facilities at Winnipeg Beach, the Province of Manitoba attempted to revitalize the town by creating a recreation park, Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park, in the 1960s, with various improvements to the beach and the parks lining it. A restaurant and lounge and several change-room structures were built, in addition to a large parking lot. The recreation park continues to be a popular destination for beachgoers. The Town has also built a skateboarding park, to stimulate the youth community. The Global Television Network TV series ''

Falcon Beach ''Falcon Beach'' is a Canadian television show, filmed at Winnipeg Beach and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and produced for the Canadian and American markets. It originally aired in 2005 as a movie on Global in Canada. It was produced as a TV serie ...

'' was filmed in the town during the summers of 2005–2006. Several different residential summer camps, including Camp Massad of Manitoba, lie just north of the town. The town is governed by a mayor (currently Pamela Jackson) and a five-member town council: * Jean Gendron * Douglas Jarvis * Barry Hoel

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, Winnipeg Beach had a population of 1,439 living in 757 of its 1,661 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,145. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

External links