Schanzenfeld, Manitoba
Schanzenfeld is a small community about 1 km south of Winkler, Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Stanley. Largely a Mennonite community, its close vicinity to Winkler has made it a suburb of the much larger City of Winkler. The village was named after Jacob Yost Shantz , a businessman from Ontario who helped German speaking Mennonites migrate from Imperial Russia to southern Manitoba. He visited areas of southern Manitoba in 1872 to explore possibilities for Mennonite settlement.
The community is first noted on a Department of the Interior map in 1881. It opened a post office ion 21-2-4W in 1884 but it was soon moved to Winkler on 4-3-4W. The community was on 16-2-4W and 21-2-4W while the school district was located at SW22-2-4W.
Divide
The community has two parts to it, "New Germany" and "Old Schanzenfeld", because of all the German immigrants that moved there they made an unofficial divide in the village.
Coincidentally, the early 21st century has also seen a steady influx of Russian and German born Mennonites settle in Schanzenfeld and surrounding areas.
References
- Geographic Names of Manitoba (pg. 243) - the Millennium Bureau of Canada
- the Dictionary of Canadian Biography - Jacob Yost Shantz
Coordinates: 49°07′58″N 97°56′30″W / 49.13278°N 97.94167°W