Bissett, Manitoba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bissett is a community on Rice Lake in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created out of the wilderness as a result of the successful financing and development of the San Antonio Gold Mine by J. D. Perrin of Winnipeg with the support of Noah Timmins and Hollinger Mines of Timmins, Ontario. The town was named after the respected physician, surgeon and politician Edgar Douglas Richmond Bissett, Liberal Progressive Member of Parliament for Springfield from September 1926 until July 1930.
The community was recognized in 1972, and is represented by a mayor and council. The 1996 population was 159.
Gold was discovered in the area in 1911, but interest waned for a number of years until J. D. Perrin optioned the claim in 1919. According to an account published by the Manitoba Historical Society the claim site was associated with the world's first use of an aircraft in mining, when in 1919 Perrin hired an aircraft in an attempt to bring his geologist, J. B. Tyrrell out of the area. The open aeroplane had to turn back in a snowstorm and the geologist had to travel out of the area by dogsled. Throughout the 1920's equipment was moved from Riverton, Manitoba into the Rice Lake area during the winter over the ice of frozen Lake Winnipeg and the Manigotogan River.
A new mining project was started near the town in 2005.
