Carberry is a town in southwestern

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Canada. It is situated 3 kilometres south of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

Highway 5 Route 5, or Highway 5, may refer to routes in the following countries: International * Asian Highway 5 * European route E05 * European route E005 Argentina * National Route 5 Australia New South Wales * M5 Motorway (Sydney) * The De ...

in the

Municipality of North Cypress – Langford The Municipality of North Cypress – Langford is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located northeast and east of the City of Brandon. The Town of Neepawa borders the RM to the north. Canadian Forces Base ...

, and has a population of 1,738 people.

Economy

Carberry and the surrounding rural area are known as "King Spud Country", a

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

which pays homage to the high quality

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es grown in the area due to ideal soil conditions for the crop. Many businesses in Carberry offer services and supplies to support the robust agriculture industry. Food processing makes use of locally produced crops and is a major employer in the community. A local factory owned by

McCain Foods McCain may refer to: * McCain (surname), a surname (includes a list of persons and characters) Companies * McCain Foods Limited, a producer of frozen foods * McCain, Inc., privately held American manufacturing company headquartered in Vista ...

makes various potato products, and is a major supplier for

McDonald's Restaurants McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger st ...

in Canada and the United States as well as producing potato products that are found in other well known restaurants, grocery stores and other varied world markets. It is one of the most highly advanced facilities of its kind in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

and normally operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Along with

es, the local agriculture industry is very diverse and includes other

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the edible flower, flowers, ...

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the n ...

, and

industrial hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

crops as well as

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...

and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...

, among other mixed farming. Carberry's population increased by 4.1% between 2011 and 2016, due in part to the community's strong, stable economy along with other factors including its geographic location in relation to major transportation routes and the nearby city of Brandon. The close proximity of Carberry to Spruce Woods Provincial Park and the many unique recreational activities in the area make Carberry a popular tourist destination. Many businesses and services cater to tourists both on a seasonal and year-round basis.

History

Early history

In the late 1760s, a small fur trading post called Pine Fort was established by independent

fur traders The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, south of Carberry's present site in what is now Spruce Woods Provincial Park along the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sin ...

. At that time, a diverse group of

Native peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

were travelling through the area and harvesting rich crops of beaver and other furs. Early fur trade accounts indicate that the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

from the south, resident

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

and

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...

, and eastern groups such as

Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

and various

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

bands were all trading or hunting in the area. Pine Fort was later taken over by the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

, and was eventually abandoned in 1811.

Native people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

continued to pass through or reside in the Carberry area and did so until the late 1870s when European settlement began to affect the landscape and game resources. The Native population in the area was eventually settled onto reserves according to treaty provisions with the Federal Government of Canada.

Incorporation

The town of Carberry was officially founded in 1882. It was settled primarily by settlers coming from

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/ Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labra ...

who were of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

origin, and was named after the

Carberry Tower Carberry Tower is a historic house in East Lothian, Scotland. The house is situated off the A6124 road, south-east of Musselburgh. Carberry, like Musselburgh is in the parish of Inveresk. It is protected as a Category B listed building. Histo ...

located near

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of . History The name Musselburgh is Ol ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

.Carberry and Area History
/ref>

Canadian Pacific Railway

As is the case with most towns in the southern districts of

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

, the present town of Carberry owes its origin mainly to the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

. In 1882, the

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spont ...

established a station at De Winton, a now defunct town-site about 3.5 kilometres east of Carberry's present site. At the time, several

officials covertly purchased much of De Winton's town-site property, hoping for large personal profits as the new town grew around the new train station. This kind of speculation was strictly against the CPR's company rules, and on discovering the violation, the rail company decided to use 100 specially-hired men to physically move the train station to the present site of the town of Carberry. The extensive and secret operation was conducted in the middle of the night and was completed in less than 12 hours. When the station reached its new location, the town of Carberry was born. Carberry quickly grew into a prosperous town and was an important stop along the

. The CPR main line route runs through Carberry to this day, however the passenger train station has since been removed.

Trans Canada Highway

The

Trans Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean ...

, another major national transportation route, was originally constructed on a routing that passed directly through the town of Carberry, which it did until the late 1950s when the route was changed according to plans for it to be upgraded to a 4-lane divided high-speed highway. Many businesses were established in Carberry to service the heavy traffic on the highway, many of which still exist. Today the Trans Canada Highway is located 3 km north of Carberry, and the old Trans Canada Highway route which passes directly through the town is known as Provincial Road 351 (within town limits it is known as 1st Avenue).

Military history

Camp Hughes

In 1909, a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

training camp named "Camp Sewell" was established 10 kilometres west of Carberry along what is now PR 351 on the south side of the

line. The name of the camp was changed in 1915 to "

Camp Hughes Camp Hughes was a Canadian military training camp, located in the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford west of the town of Carberry in Manitoba, Canada. It was actively used for Army training from 1909 to 1934 and as a communications statio ...

" in honour of Major-General Sir

Sam Hughes Sir Samuel Hughes, (January 8, 1853 – August 23, 1921) was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence during World War I. He was notable for being the last Liberal-Conservative cabinet minister, until he was dismissed from his cabinet pos ...

, Canada's Minister of Militia and Defence at the time. The soldiers and support staff stationed at Camp Hughes naturally maintained very close social and economic ties with the town of Carberry which was only a short distance away. Extensive trench systems, grenade and rifle ranges, and military structures were built at Camp Hughes between 1915 and 1916, and a variety of retail stores and entertainment complexes on a double-avenued area close to the main camp formed a lively commercial midway. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, more than 38,000 troops of the

Canadian Expeditionary Force The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry divisi ...

trained at the camp, giving it the largest population in the province of

outside of the capital city,

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

. Many of the soldiers who were trained at the camp were involved in the infamous

Battle of Vimy Ridge The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions ...

. The

continued to train soldiers at Camp Hughes until 1934, when troops were moved to

CFB Shilo Canadian Forces Base Shilo (CFB Shilo; french: Base des Forces canadiennes Shilo — BFC Shilo) is an operations and training base of the Canadian Armed Forces, located east of Brandon, Manitoba and adjacent to Sprucewoods. During the 1990s, C ...

and

CFB Winnipeg Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg , (CFB Winnipeg) is a Royal Canadian Air Force base located within the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Co-located at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, CFB Winnipeg is home to many flight opera ...

for financial and logistical reasons. Camp Hughes has been designated as a Provincial Heritage Site, and although the site is no longer active, it is still monitored by the

Canadian Department of National Defense The Department of National Defence (DND; french: Ministère de la Défense nationale) is the department of the Government of Canada which supports the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadian national interests domestically and in ...

. There is a roadside park named "Camp Hughes Wayside Park" located 13 kilometres west of Carberry on the

near the west intersection with PR 351, a short distance north of the actual Camp Hughes site, named in honour of the military camp.

RCAF Station Carberry

In December, 1940, troops of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

arrived in Carberry and established the Service Flying Training School Number 33 just south of Carberry, known as

RCAF Station Carberry RCAF Station Carberry was a Second World War air training station located near Carberry, Manitoba, Canada. History World War II The Royal Air Force (RAF), opened No. 33 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) here in December 1940. As with all RA ...

. It was used to train military pilots in the vast

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New ...

. Thousands of military personnel from

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and other

Commonwealth countries The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 56 sovereign states. Most of them were British colonies or dependencies of those colonies. No one government in the Commonwealth exercises power over the others, as is the case in a p ...

were moved to Carberry for flight training. The flight training school was disbanded at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and is now the present site of the

processing facility.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Carberry had a population of 1,818 living in 794 of its 847 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,738. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Community

*Carberry & District Health Center **Carberry Hospital **Carberry Health Clinic **Dental Clinic **Laboratory and X-Ray **Personal Care Home **Home Care Services **Palliative Care Services **Public Health Services *Carberry Plains Community Centre **Bowling **Hockey **Figure Skating **Curling **Public Skating **Tennis **Swimming *Carberry Child Care Co-op * R.J. Waugh Elementary School (K-4) * Carberry Collegiate Institute (5–12) *

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

Carberry Detachment *Carberry/ North Cypress Fire Department * Manitoba Conservation Carberry District Office *Carberry/ North Cypress Library *Carberry Centennial Drop-In Centre/ Services for Seniors *Carberry Recreation Baseball Park *

Royal Canadian Legion The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization (veterans' organization) founded in 1925. Membership includes people who have served as military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, Royal ...

(branch 153) *Sandhills Golf & Country Club

Transportation

The Town of Carberry is located 3 kilometres south of the

, 50 kilometres east of Brandon, and 150 kilometres west of the provincial capital,

. The nearest 24-hour Canada-U.S.A. land border crossing is located 120 kilometres southwest of Carberry at Boissevain on Highway 10. The town is situated 20 kilometres north of Spruce Woods Provincial Park, which is also located on

, designated in Manitoba as the Parks Route. The

Brandon Municipal Airport Brandon Municipal Airport (also known as Brandon Airport or McGill Field) is an airport located north of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. It serves the City of Brandon, the Westman and Parkland regions of Manitoba, and eastern Saskatchewan. Brand ...

is located 48 kilometres west of Carberry. The Brandon Air Shuttle provides passenger service on request between Carberry and the

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (commonly known as Winnipeg International Airport or Winnipeg Airport) is a Transport Canada designated international airport located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the seventh b ...

. Both the

main line route and a

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

branch line route run directly through Carberry.

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

passenger service is not offered in Carberry, however trains on the Toronto to Vancouver "The Canadian" Line can be accessed at the Rivers railway station located approximately 80 kilometres northwest of the community, while the

Winnipeg – Churchill train Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,60 ...

as well as ''The Canadian'' can be accessed at the Portage la Prairie railway station located approximately 80 kilometres east of the community.

Major attractions

*The Seton Centre – a museum, art gallery & gift shop designed to celebrate the time that

Ernest Thompson Seton Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...

spent in the Carberry area. A classroom and a garden featuring plants that are native to the prairies can be found behind the Centre. *Downtown Carberry (Main Street) – Designated as Manitoba's first Provincial Heritage District. Two entire blocks of the street are completely made up of historic buildings with architecture dating back well over a century. *Carberry Plains Museum – portrays life on the Manitoba prairies and the history of the Carberry area with various exhibits. * Spruce Woods Provincial Park – located south of Carberry on

. The Spirit Sands Desert is located within the park. *

, WWI trenches, National Historic Site west of Carberry *Sandhills Golf & Country Club – one of the longest nine-hole golf courses in Manitoba at a length of 2.95 kilometres (3228 yards). *Sand Hills Casino – located south of Carberry on

Media

Carberry is home to the Carberry News-Express – weekly newspaper and channel 12 television''( WCG cable only)'' – WCG Community Access Channel.

Notable people

Ernest Thompson Seton *

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

– actor - posted to Carberry as a Royal Air Force instructor during World War II.Rosemary Malaher
Historical Tour: Carberry, Manitoba
''Manitoba History'' 14 (Autumn, 1987). Retrieved 2016-12-02. * Mary Carter (née Munn), one of the first female judges in Saskatchewan; part of childhood spent in Carberry. * Mitchell Grobb – musician * Bob Leslie – hockey coach and executive * Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May – pilot, World War One hero *

– author, artist,

Woodcraft Indians Woodcraft League of America, originally called the Woodcraft Indians and League of Woodcraft Indians, is a youth program, established by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1901. Despite the name, the program was created for non-Indian children. At first th ...

founder,

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded in ...

founder *

Joan Thomas Joan Thomas (born 1949) is a Canadian novelist and book reviewer from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Thomas grew up in Carberry, Manitoba and later worked as a freelance journalist and book reviewer for ''The Globe and Mail'', the ''Winnipeg Free Press' ...

, author

References

External links

Town of Carberry
{{Coord, 49, 52, 08, N, 99, 21, 34, W, region:CA_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Towns in Manitoba