The most unique settlement in the RM of Argyle, indeed one of the most unique settlements in the province would be the Icelandic Settlement in the Grund and Bru districts.

In the early 1870’s a combination of economic factors and natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions prompted increased, and large-scale emigrations to North America. On the advice of a Missionary named John Taylor a large group of settlers arrived there on the west side of Lake Winnipeg in the late fall of 1875, establishing a settlement that has shaped the culture of that part of Manitoba through to the present day.

A combination of bad luck and bad weather nearly put an end to that experiment as a smallpox epidemic, harsh winters and wet summers made life extremely difficult for the first years. The colony persevered and eventually thrived. For those that preferred fishing over farming the location served them well once they adapted. But it wasn’t great farm land and that likely prompted some to try their luck elsewhere.

Everett Parsonage, a pioneer of the Pilot Mound district, had worked for John Taylor in Ontario and through him had contacts with some of the Icelandic settlers at Gimli. He advised them to visit Argyle. In August of 1880 Sigurdur Kristofferson and Kristian Jonsson set out to vist Mr. Parsonage and he showed them a largely unsettled area in the rolling country in the northern part of the Municipality an area we now know as Grund.