It began with a picture…
It began with a picture…
This picture from our middle son on his wedding day, sparked a bit of interest into our local history.
The old house is made of railway ties stacked to make the walls the rafters are poplar poles likely from the surrounding woods. It was made in the 1920s when the adjacent Midland Railway of Manitoba went bankrupt. Its wooden parts were used by the locals. The rafters were made from locally available poplar trees.
Railway tie construction
The side of the house is covered with old tin tiles. I love the look of this weathered siding. Later I found out the tiles came from an old hotel in town that is burned down. The other side of the house has tin shingles that came from a local elevator.
The house was not lived in since the 1970ies, the roof has deteriorated and is collapsed on the north side.
Tin tiles
Midland railway of Manitoba
Grandpa used to call the Jim Hill track, the old railroad, that must have been part of the Midland Railway. There is not much written about the Midland Railway. J.J. Hill was one of the 3 main investors in the CPR project in the 1880ies.
He was the only major American investor and owned the major east west railway south of the border and the lucrative link from Fargo to Winnipeg. He had an understanding with his Canadian investors that the Fort William to Winnipeg link of the CPR would not be built for 2 years after it was and lost money on the Fargo to Winnipeg line as a result. In “revenge” he built several links north to Canada from his USA trunk most of which like the Midland went bankrupt by 1920.
Embankment left from the Midland railway of Manitoba
The only one remaining is the Burlington Northern which still is used running beside Hwy 75 from the border to Winnipeg. The embankments for the Midland existed until the 1960ies when they were removed to provide fill for the Assiniboine river dikes during the construction of the Assiniboine river diversion. There is still 100 meters of embankment existing, and you can still see the stumps of the poles that supported the bridge over the Elm river at the south end of the embankment.
So here you have it, some local history in our own backyard!
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