Wawanesa: A Prairie Heritage

When Europeans came to the area between the Brandon Hills and the Tiger Hills, many arrived from Brandon. The first settlers would crest the Brandon Hills and see an expanse of untamed prairie, forest, and marsh stretching for miles and miles. The site of present day Nesbitt is near where many settlers must have crossed the Brandon Hills and some of the first farms in the area were founded nearby.

People started up small farming operations all over the great expanse of prairie between the two ranges of hills. When, in 1884, the C.P.R secured land for its second railway, farming operations began to gravitate towards the C.P.R.’s future path. The C.P.R. decided to create a settlement in the middle of Oakland municipality and purchased the land that would be the village of Nesbitt from Mr. William Henderson.

The railway reached the small settlement in 1891. This was a tremendous boon to local farmers as the market for their surplus grain was now very accessible. The increased economic activity led to the establishment of other businesses in Nesbitt and a rapid increase in population.
The first businesses included a general store, a butcher shop, and a blacksmith. By 1895, the first of a series of grain elevators had been erected and Nesbitt’s grain industry exploded.

One of the first elevators in Nesbitt was the Northern Elevator. It was powered by horses, and served the needs of local farmers for nearly 15 years until it burned down in 1909. The two main elevators, the Manitoba Pool elevator and the United Grain Growers elevator, arose just after this time and have served the area ever since. In 1983 the Pool elevator was torn down and a new elevator with a much larger capacity was constructed.

Within a year of the arrival of the railroad it became clear that a school was needed to educate the growing number of children in the area.

The town was named Nesbitt, after Senator Nesbitt Kurkoffer. Kurkoffer had promised the community a town bell if it would name the village after him. His untimely death deprived the village of its bell, but it kept the name Nesbitt without the reward.

Around the same time that the villagers of Nesbitt erected a school, they also built a church.

Nesbitt acted as a centre for community life for all the people in the surrounding area. The stores would be open at night and people would come into town in order to shop and socialize. During the winter, the community would create skating rinks and later, in 1928, a curling rink was constructed. Skating and hockey were popular, but curling bonspiels became the most favoured events. Bonspiels sometimes lasted many days as there was only one sheet of ice.

Throughout its history, Nesbitt has held several different annual events. In the early days, the Oyster Supper was the most popular event. This was later replaced by the church's Fowl Supper. In 1952, the first annual Nesbitt Sports Day was organized. This event consisted of ball tournaments, games, and foot races for the children. Nesbitt has held its sports event every year with only a few cancellations due to weather.

Although Nesbitt’s grain industry continued to be very important to all the farmers in the area, the community itself suffered. In the decades after World War II, when cars and highway travel became very common, many people would go to Wawanesa to take advantage of its more diverse services. The school closed and students were bussed to Wawanesa. During this time most of the businesses disappeared and the town's population has declined to around thirty people.

Nesbitt community centre

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