For our first webinar to mark the sesquicentennial of Mennonite settlement in Manitoba, we are joined by local historian Eleanor Chornoboy, who will present on the experience of Mennonites at the Fort Dufferin immigration station.

While the Mennonite immigrants to Manitoba who settled in the East Reserve, starting in 1874, typically disembarked from riverboats at a site at the confluence of the Red and Rat Rivers, the earliest Mennonite settlers on the West Reserve arrived at Fort Dufferin, a few miles north of Emerson and West Lynn at the Canada-US border. First landing in July 1875, the number of new arrivals quickly swelled. That month alone, nearly 1,000 immigrants were pressed into immigration barracks intended for only 300 people.

What were conditions like at the fort and what plans were made while so many people waited as long as six weeks while immigration promoter Jacob Shantz, immigration agent William Hespeler, and Mennonite leaders inspected the land to the west?

Presented by CTMS and Mennonite Heritage Village.