This Community Memories
exhibit traces the evolution
of Gimli, Manitoba from a
colony of rough hewn cabins
in "New Iceland" 125 years
ago to today’s thriving
resort community on the
shores of the tenth largest
freshwater lake in the world.
In the fall of 1875,
| Icelandic immigrants arrived
in "New Iceland," an area on
the western shore of Lake
Winnipeg where the Government
of Canada had given
Icelanders sole settlement
rights. New Iceland had its
own laws, its own
constitution and its own
"capital," the settlement of
| Gimli.
Four years later, the
tiny province of Manitoba
extended its boundaries to
include Gimli and all of New
Iceland.
Visitors to this exhibit
will journey through the
milestones of the town’s
history as the little colony
| grew to a village, then a
rural municipality, to a town
and finally, in 2002, the
amalgamation of the town and
the rural community around
it.
|