Winnipegosis is an unincorporated urban community in the Rural Municipality of Mossey River, Manitoba, Canada. It lies at the mouth of the Mossey River on Lake Winnipegosis in west-central Manitoba.
The community was once categorized as a village, but this status was relinquished on 1 January 2015 upon its amalgamation with the RM of Mossey River.
History
The first Europeans to come to the Winnipegosis area were early explorers and fur traders, with the mouth of Lake Winnipegosis' Mossey River serving as a meeting place for many trappers and traders throughout the year to do business and purchase supplies. The first traders were men of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Others, who arrived a bit later for trapping and fishing, were English, Scottish, French, and German.
In the late 1700s, the original Fort Dauphin was constructed by descendants of the French explorer LaVérendrye.
The railroad arrived in the area in 1897, whereafter Ukrainians and other Central Europeans came to the area.
In 1898, the community's post office name was changed to Winnipegosis, when it joined other buildings moved to the new townsite.
In 1900, Icelandic fishermen came by boat, bringing cattle, to settle at Red Deer Point on the west side of the lake, around 20 miles from present-day Winnipegosis.
On March 10, 1915, the Village of Winnipegosis was incorporated as a municipality, with Joseph P. Grenon as the first mayor. The Lieutenant Governor of Canada proclaimed the community as a village the following month.As the fur trade had ended by this time, the community found its main economic activities to be in timber and fishing.
Winnipegosis remained a village until January 1, 2015, when it was amalgamated with the Rural Municipality of Mossey River.
Etymology
The community takes its name from the lake on which it is situated: Lake Winnipegosis. The lake's name, which has evolved through different spellings, came from the Cree word win-nipi (meaning 'muddy/murky waters') and the suffix -osis (meaning 'little'), as diminutive of Winnipeg, which means 'muddy waters'.
Mossey River was spelled "Mossy" prior to 1900.
Commerce
Various forts of different companies, such as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), have stood on this site. The mouth of Mossey River was the site of the original Fort Dauphin fur trading post, constructed by the son of French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, in the late 18th century.
The peak of the community's economic boom occurred during the settler-era fur trade and 20th century timber and fishing industries.
Emil Hartman was the inaugural postmaster from 1896–1905. The Dauphin railway that arrived in late 1897 named the station after the lake. In 1898, the post office name changed from Mossy River to Winnipegosis, when it joined other buildings moved to the new townsite. That year, the community possessed 2 hotels, 2 boarding houses, 3 general stores, a butcher, a blacksmith, a 30-man sawmill, and 2 larger fish trading companies (North West Fish Co. and The Armstrong Trading Co, subsidiary of Booth Fisheries Co.).
In early 1906, Joseph Grenon Jr. began a mink ranch across the river, from where he sold the animals and furs to Moncton, New Brunswick.
In 1924, Peter McArthur (Standard Lumber Co.) opened the first sawmill that operated until the planer mill burned down. The Albion Hotel, closed 1908–1911, was renamed Hotel Winnipegosis. Fire destroyed the Lake View Hotel in 1914.
Telephone connections came in 1912; the 1915 directory listed five subscribers. A Bank of Ottawa branch, which opened in 1919, became a Bank of Nova Scotia after the merger that year. The first ice-cream parlour possessed the first radio in 1921.
In 1935, schoolteacher Paul Rudiak (–1975) established the Rudiak Flour Mills, for which Jack Mason was the miller.In 1950, a wooden grain elevator was built at Winnipegosis by National Grain. Around 1956, its initial 55,000-bushel capacity was increased to 85,000 bushels by the construction of a balloon annex on its southern side. Sold to Cargill Grain in 1975, the building was closed in April 1981, and demolished in March 2021.
The Winnipegosis Credit Union, formed in 1953, merged into the Dauphin Plains Credit Union in 1970, and further mergers followed.