Wawanesa: A Prairie Heritage

The first businesses in the Wawanesa area arose in response to the needs of the area’s farmers. Farmers moved into the Wawanesa area in the 1870s and '80s and by 1882, the harvests were large enough to demand a marketing centre. A hamlet named Souris City was developed on the Souris river three miles south of Wawanesa’s present location.

An early farmer in the Wawanesa area plowing his field

The first businesses included a grist mill, a hotel, and two stores. Though the community could not yet provide a full fledged market place for the local farmers, the services that the businesses did provide were invaluable.

Flour mills provided an essential service to the community.

When a branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad (later the C.N.R.) came through the area in 1890, the community moved to where the railroad crossed the river and was renamed Wawanesa. The railroad line was as a river and the settlements on its bank grew like verdant riverbank foliage while communities far from the shore withered until little was left of them but dried husks.

The coming of the train transformed Wawanesa.

Everyone was excited because the railroad meant that the long and sometimes dangerous trip to Brandon to sell grain would no longer be necessary.

Two grain elevators were built in 1890, providing a local market for the grain of the region’s farmers. The new elevators brought more people to the town and spurred the development of a number of other businesses.

The Wawanesa Co-operative Elevator

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