The Rural Municipality of Bifrost is a former rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was originally incorporated as a rural municipality on December 1, 1907. It ceased on January 1, 2015 as a result of its provincially mandated

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

with the Village of Riverton to form the Municipality of Bifrost – Riverton. It was located in Manitoba's Interlake Region along the west shore of Lake Winnipeg. It had a population of about 2,750. Its name comes from a Scandinavian word from

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

meaning "rainbow bridge connecting Asgard and Midgard" (Earth).

Geography

The RM of Bifrost included the communities of

Morweena Morweena is a small community in Manitoba of approximately 150 people. It is north of Winnipeg, accessible from Highway 7, in the Rural Municipality of Bifrost. A notable person from Morweena is James Reimer, a goaltender with the Detroit Red W ...

, Vidir and

Hnausa Hnausa which roughly translates to "uneven ground" is a small community located in the area known as New Iceland in Manitoba's Interlake Region. It is 6 miles, or approximately 10 kilometres, south of Riverton, and is situated on Breidavik (which m ...

. The independently governed Town of Arborg and the former Village of Riverton were within the boundaries of the RM of Bifrost. The RM also contains part of Manitoba's

Moose Creek Provincial Forest The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

Communities

* Finns * Geysir *

* Jaroslaw * Ledwyn *

* Okno * Rosenburg * Shorncliffe * Vidir * Washow Bay

History

In 1875, the Canadian Government set aside a portion of land on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, which was called

New Iceland New Iceland ( is, Nýja Ísland ) is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitoba which was named for settlers from Iceland. It was settled in 1875. Background In 1875, over 200 Icelanders immigrated to Manitoba es ...

and was inhabited by over 1200 Icelandic settlers. This area was considered the R.M. of Gimli, but it was decided that the municipality be split up, because of the poor condition of the roads that made travel too difficult to get to the government offices. In 1907, the R.M. of Gimli was split up and the northwestern part became known as Bifrost, and then the R.M. of Bifrost in 1908. Bifrost is a Scandinavian word that means "rainbow bridge connecting heaven and earth". The municipal offices for Bifrost were set up in Hnausa, but in 1916 the offices moved to the Town of Arborg.

Notable people

Professional Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey goaltender James Reimer grew up in

In popular culture

In the 2014 film, '' Tusk'', the protagonist travels to Bifrost to interview a man for his podcast.

References

''Manitoba Historical Society - Rural Municipality of Bifrost''Map of Bifrost R.M. at Statcan

External links

* {{Authority control Bifrost Populated places disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Manitoba