Niverville, Manitoba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Niverville.
Niverville is a small town in the Canadian province of Manitoba (population 2,464, Statistics Canada Census 2006), located about 25 km south of the provincial capital, Winnipeg. It serves mostly as a dormitory community or exurb for people who work in Winnipeg but prefer to reside in a lower-cost environment. The town is located at the crossing of Provincial Road 311 and the CPR Emerson rail line, between Provincial Trunk Highways 75 and 59, providing an excellent rail link and high-speed four-lane transport routes to and from the provincial capital.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
The town lies on the edge of the Red River Valley. Since the Red River Valley lay at one time beneath the pristine and expansive glacial Lake Agassiz, the land is perfectly flat, and the rich black soils bring some of the finest crops in the land, including hard red spring wheat and canola. The area when originally explored was quite swampy and poorly drained; however the early settlers set about to improve the land through the creation of artificial drainage channels, and today the land has become tillable and very productive. The flat nature of the land, and an impervious underlying layer of clay, combine to provide suitable breeding areas for mosquitoes, and consequently in summer this area is home to many beautiful bird species, including the starling and house sparrow, which feed on the resulting hordes of insects. Niverville is on the edge of the Red River flood plain, and periodically is threatened by spring flooding, most recently in 1997 when temporary dikes were hastily thrown up to protect the town from the ravages of the river. To protect itself, the town has since 1997 constructed a permanent ring dike.
[edit] Sociology
The town offers many services, as well as an elementary school (K-6), and a high school (7-12). Eight churches serve the distinctive threads of Mennonites, as well as other Christian faith communities. Niverville's signature event is the annual 'Niverville Olde Tyme Country Fair' (www.nivervillefair.com), which is held the second weekend of June. There are several significant employers in Niverville, including Spectus Rubber Moulders, The Puratone Corporation, The Nutri-Health Group and Wm Dyck and Sons. Niverville has many services including: banking, hair care, construction trades, gasoline sales, several restaurants, medical and dental clinics, massages, movie rentals, etc.
[edit] History
This town is named for an 18th century explorer and fur trader – Joseph-Claude Boucher, Chevalier de Niverville. This most unfortunate choice of name was made by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1877 – one year before the railway into town was built and an official town plan was actually registered. Likely, the CPR thought it was honoring a noble voyageur who had explored and passed through Manitoba in 1750 on his way to suppress the Indians in Saskatchewan. In reality though, Chevalier de Niverville (according to Archives Canada) was also the cruel owner of Marie, a gentle and beautiful Indian slave girl whom he (in 1759) had stripped naked, flogged, branded with a hot iron on the shoulder with a fleur-de-lis, and publicly hanged until dead, for challenging her abusive mistress, Niverville's 22 year old wife. A nice man Chevalier de Niverville certainly was not!
The area around Niverville was the first location for Mennonite settlement in Manitoba, which occurred in 1874. At that time it was known as the East Reserve. The first grain elevator in western Canada, a unique round structure, was built by William Hespeler, a man who has now lent his name to Niverville's park. It was from this elevator that, in 1879, shipped the first western Canadian barley sold to overseas markets. The hardiness and determination of the early Mennonite settlers, most coming from a harsh environment in Russia, ensured that this unforgiving land would be transformed into a place from which livelihoods could be wrested, albeit at considerable effort and cost. In later years, these generous settlers sent grain in relief to others suffering famine in Russia.
[edit] A Changing Future
The expanding use of the automobile has markedly changed the way of life in small-town Manitoba. The 1950's placed towns like Niverville at the centers of vibrant local rural economies. Farm-implement dealerships, general stores, meat and dairy processing businesses and perhaps a local tavern (though not in Niverville) formed the economic framework for a tightly-knit idyllic Norman Rockwellian community; however all of that has disappeared in recent decades.
Some people who live in Niverville now work in Winnipeg, and tend to spend little time in the town itself, sleeping there mainly to escape higher costs of housing in the provincial capital. Some might say the former community spirit of interdependence has given way to a more Orwellian, anonymous, self-protective way of life, and many townspeople no longer know their neighbors well, or express care for one another through shared responsibilities as was formerly the norm, though other "Nivervillians" as they're known say the traditional values and ideals of a small town are still present. The influx of city people into a predominantly agricultural community has lead to acrimonious disputes over building permits and land-use.
Niverville sells itself as the 'fastest growing rural community in Manitoba'. In the past few years it has become quite a young town with many young families coming to live and participate in the community.
 Subdivisions of Manitoba |
|
|---|---|
| Regions | Winnipeg Capital Region · Central Plains · Eastman · Interlake · Northern · Parkland · Pembina Valley · Westman |
| Census divisions | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 |
| Cities | Brandon · Dauphin · Flin Flon (part) · Portage la Prairie · Selkirk · Steinbach · Thompson · Winkler · Winnipeg |
