Explore Winnipeg Beach anew

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/07/2020 (1934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Beach is an ideal place for a summer day-trip, with a three-kilometre sandy stretch, boardwalk, picnic areas, tennis and volleyball courts, and one of the best wind-surfing bays on the lake.

In the year 2000, a permanent bandstand was built to host musical performances (currently on hold due to COVID-19), and in 2011, the Winnipeg Beach campground opened with 120 fully-serviced sites.

The tradition of Winnipeg Beach as a resort town dates back more than a century, when William Whyte of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) first came across the beautiful length of beach in 1900. He had the CPR purchase 330 acres of waterfront land to develop a beach resort, with the intention of getting a jump on the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) who already had sights set on building a line to Lake Manitoba.  

Railway tracks reached Winnipeg Beach in 1901, and by 1903, the first CPR train arrived with 500 passengers seeking piers, parks and picnic grounds. By 1906, there were multiple trains transporting tens of thousands of tourists back-and-forth for the round-trip cost of 50 cents, with the ‘Moonlight Special’ returning to the city on Saturday nights at midnight.

Winnipeg Beach’s popularity grew in tandem with the growth of Winnipeg, identified in the 1911 census as Canada’s third-largest city. The city’s elite flocked to the resort town for “health-giving” outings by the lake. Main Street, initially known as Railway Street, came alive with hotels and stores, penny arcades, bowling greens, tennis courts, and a sprawling amusement park. In 1919, the highlight attraction was added: a 300-foot-high wooden roller coaster made by the same man who designed the largest one in the world at Coney Island.

In 1924, a dance hall called The Pavilion was constructed, with a 1,300 square-metre dance floor, believed to be the largest in Western Canada. People gathered in droves to groove to the top bands of the times, bringing dancing — which up to that point was reserved for the privacy of dance parlours — into the public domain.  

The carnival atmosphere of Winnipeg Beach was maintained right through to the 1960s, until the CPR discontinued passenger train service in 1961. The roller coaster was dismantled soon after, and the dance hall was closed permanently in 1964.

The new boardwalk, developed in 2000, pays homage to the history of Winnipeg Beach, with interpretive signs containing stories and pictures. The train tracks are also still present, and the CPR donated a caboose for display in Winnipeg Beach as a reminder of days gone by.

The only historic landmark of the era that remains is the water tower, built in 1928 to provide pressurized water for steam locomotives. Designed and constructed by Winnipeg’s Vulcan Iron Works, the 40-metre high tower supported a 90,000-litre capacity tank, and is the best example of only five surviving riveted-steel water towers in Manitoba.

The looming structure still stands tall, like a sentinel silently holding on to memories of yesterday, while bearing witness to new generations of beach-goers enjoying the resort town today.