Duck Bay is a community located in the Canadian province of Manitoba, along the western shores of Lake Winnipegosis. Duck Bay was established at the turn of the century as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and is named after the bay on which it is situated. A gravel road to Camperville, Manitoba was completed in 1952.
The primary industry of the community is fishing, trapping and some agriculture. The Duck Bay wharf provides berthing for 15–20 skiffs and 3–5 whitefish vessels.
The inhabitants of the community are mostly Métis of Ojibway and French ancestry.
In 1842, Father Darveau, travelling with the fur brigades, began his missionary work among the natives in the Duck Bay and Pine Creek area. This young priest travelled extensively, north to The Pas, and as far west as Fort Pelly. On a journey back from The Pas, in June 1844, Father Darveau died. Alexander Ross in his book, The Red River Settlement: its Rise, Progress and Present State, says Father Darveau was drowned "in a rather mysterious manner." Archbishop Taché, in his "Esquise sur le Nord-Ouest de l'Amérique" is of the opinion that Father Darveau was drowned when his canoe struck a reef. However, two men who have spent many years at the Camperville mission, Fathers Joseph Brachet and Maurice de Bretagne, say they have no doubt that the young priest was murdered — a victim of the misconceptions of Muskegon sorcerers (medicine men) who were afraid that they would lose their influence over their people as a result of the new religion of the white men.
Descendants of native families living in the Swan River area give this account of Father Darveau's death. It would seem that Father Darveau, with a Métis guide named J. Baptiste Boyer and a small boy, probably a son or relative of the guide, were travelling from The Pas to Lake Winnipegosis. Their bodies and canoe were found washed ashore on a bay seven and a half miles northwest of Duck Bay. News of the tragedy spread quickly, as the bodies were found near a camp of Métis. Burial of all three took place at this site, but later Archbishop Langevin had the priest's body disinterred and sent by boat to St. Boniface, where it was placed in a crypt in the cathedral. A wooden cross was erected to mark the burial spot on the lake shore.
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