Historic Sites of Manitoba: Riverland School No. 1557 (RM of Lac du Bonnet)

The Riverland School District was organized formally in March 1911 and a school building was erected on land donated by Swedish immigrant Gus Anderson, on the southeast quarter of 15-15-11 east of the Principal Meridian, on Riverland Road in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet. Enrollment in grades 1 to 8 peaked at 64 students. The school closed in 1967 with remaining students going to Lac du Bonnet Consolidated School No. 2394. The building was declared a municipal historic site in 2008 and local heritage advocates are hoping to restore it. In 2016, a commemorative monument was installed at the site by the Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee.

Among the teachers of Riverland School were Russel H. Hayter (c1926), Jessie Loewen (1950-1951), Mrs. Jessie Melquist (1951-1952), George Douglas Winstone (1952), Lionel Lochlan Clench (1952-1953), John Louis Brown (1953-1958), Peter Norman Wiebe (1958-1960), Amel Kostynyk (1960-1964), and Donald Walter Smith (1964-1966).

Riverland School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 139. Former Riverland School building (September 2013) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Riverland School commemorative monument (August 2019) Source: Rose Kuzina Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.25275, W95.99331 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites

Historic Sites of Manitoba: School Point - Riverland (RM of Lac du Bonnet)

Sources:

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.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

Riverland School, SE 15-15-11 E, Lac du Bonnet area, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch.

Heritage Sites, Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee.

Manitoba School Records Collection, (GR9480), Riverland School District No. 1557 Daily Registers, Archives of Manitoba.

We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 1 December 2019

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