Manitoba Anniversaries

Manitoba Pageant, September 1961, Volume 7, Number 1

This article was published originally in Manitoba Pageant by the Manitoba Historical Society on the above date. We make this online version available as a free, public service. As an historical document, the article may contain language and views that are no longer in common use and may be culturally sensitive in nature. Please direct inquiries to webmaster@mhs.mb.ca. Help us keep history alive!

When Manitoba entered Confederation in 1870 it was a rectangular-shaped province extending about 130 miles east to west and about 110 miles north to south, an area of 13,928 miles. The northern boundary of this "Postage Stamp Province" was located just south of Boundary Creek at Winnipeg Beach. The great increase in population in the West between 1870 and 1881, led in '81, to the first extension of Manitoba's boundaries west to the present boundary and north to a line approximately 265 miles north of the international boundary.

The extension to our present boundaries took place in 1912. This year, then, we celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the extension of 1881 which represented a five-fold increase in provincial area; next year we look forward to the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of our present boundaries.

See Manitoba Pageant, April, 1956, From Postage Stamp to Keystone by Douglas Kemp.

Page revised: 1 July 2009