MANITOBA

Manitoba is the easternmost of the three Prairie Provinces. Comparatively level, Manitoba generally ranges from 150 metres to 300 metres above sea level with Baldy Mountain, as it's highest point at 831 metres. Agricultural land lies in a triangle, bordering Saskatchewan and America, cutting diagonally across lake Winnipeg. The northern part of Manitoba is Precambrian Shield. In northernmost Manitoba lies tundra and permafrost (permanently frozen subsoil) with all waters in Manitoba flowing into Hudson Bay.

Before settlement, a large area of southern Manitoba was flood plain or swamp. An extensive system of drainage ditches had to be constructed throughout south central Manitoba to make the region suitable for cultivation. The name of Manitoba likely comes from the Cree words "Manitou bou", which means "the narrows of the Great Spirit". It applied to Lake Manitoba, which narrows to half a mile across at its centre. The waves on the loose surface rocks of its north shore produce curious bell-like and wailing sounds, which the first Indian visitors believed, came from a huge drum beaten by the spirit Manitou.

The Assiniboine Indians were the first inhabitants of Manitoba and other tribes included the nomadic Cree, who followed the herds of buffalo and caribou on their seasonal migrations. In 1612, Captain Thomas Button wintered two ships from Port Nelson on Hudson Bay as far as the Saskatchewan River near The Pas. A party led by La Verendrye explored the Red and Winnipeg Rivers between 1733 and 1738 and built several outposts.

In 1670, King Charles II of England granted the Hudson's Bay Company a large tract of land named Rupert's Land. The company set up fur trading posts to exploit the country's wealth with major sites being the York Factory at the mouths of the Nelson and Hayes Rivers and Fort Prince of Wales at the mouth of the Churchill River.

After 1740, in the wake of La Verendrye, traders from New France pushed across the southern part of Manitoba. During the same period, the first European agricultural settlement was established by Lord Selkirk, a Scottish nobleman who sent a number of dispossessed Scottish Highlanders to settle land he had secured from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1811. He called the area Assiniboia. Parliament passed the Manitoba Act on May 12, 1870, at the suggestion of Louis Riel, the name Manitoba was given to the province on its creation in and it joined the other provinces in Confederation.

Manitoba now enjoys a rich population mix, with people from every continent and virtually every country in the world providing a wide infusion of cultures and a broadened heritage. After confederation in 1870, the English and French Canadians were, followed by Russian Mennonites, Icelanders, Ukrainians and Germans in subsequent years, after World War II Manitoba saw additional immigration from Europe and most recently from the Caribbean, South America, Africa a