This cemetery located just north of Portage la Prairie on Highway 240 in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie contains several monuments in addition to many marked or unmarked graves. Some are for patients of the Manitoba Development Centre (MDC) who died at that facility and, for various reasons, had no other place to be interred.
One monument was erected in June 1972 by the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire that commemorates local veterans of the Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa. A second monument, unveiled in a ceremony at the Manitoba Legislative Building on 23 January 2025 and subsequently installed here, commemorates the people who lived at the Manitoba Development Centre. Several monuments around the cemetery given the names and dates, where known, of people buried in it.
Entrance to the Manitoba Development Centre Cemetery (April 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Entrance to the Manitoba Development Centre Cemetery (October 2020)
Source: George Penner
Boer War veterans monument in the Manitoba Development Centre Cemetery (September 2025)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Plaque commemorating people who lived at the Manitoba Development Centre (September 2025)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.99899, W98.28681
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Home for Incurables / Home for the Aged and Infirm / Manitoba School for Mental Defectives / Manitoba School for Retardates / Manitoba Development Centre (3rd Street NE, Portage la Prairie)
“A Very Serious Matter”: The Manitoba Government’s Institution for People with Intellectual Disability by Mary Horodyski
Prairie History, Number 1, Winter 2020Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Mental Health Centre North Cemetery (Brandon)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Mental Health Centre South Cemetery (Brandon)
“Plaque remembers Manitoba Development Centre residents,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 January 2025.
We thank George Penner for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 September 2025
Historic Sites of Manitoba
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