The Hesselwood School District was established in June 1897, named for the Hessel area of England and the abundance of wood in the area, and a one-room schoolhouse operated at SE18-8-23W in the Rural Municipality of Sifton. The school closed from 1928 to 1929 due to low enrollment, with students going to Lansdowne School in the interim. It reopened in 1929 and continued until June 1962, when it closed permanently. The district was dissolved five years later. Its area became part of the Oak Lake Consolidated School District and later the Fort La Bosse School Division. The former school building was moved to the north shore of nearby Oak Lake where it was used as a summer cottage. A monument unveiled on 7 August 1999 commemorates the school.
Among the teachers of Hesselwood School were Joseph Arseneault (1900) and Winnie Steen (?-?).
Hesselwood School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 22.
Hesselwood School commemorative monument (August 2014)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.65102, W100.57703
denoted by symbol on the map above
Pipestone East topographic map, 62F/10 East, Edition 1, Series A743 [Archives of Manitoba].
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
Ox Trails to Blacktop by Oak Lake History Committee, 1982, Manitoba Legislative Library, F 5649.O23 Oxt.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 April 2021
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