Virden 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. Oil was first discovered in 1951, and Virden has since come to be known as the "Oil Capital of Manitoba".

History

Virden has its roots as a farming community known as Gopher Creek. However, it became a railway tent town in 1882, and grew in population due to the brick and flour industry, as well as with the discovery of oil in the 1950s. The origin of the name, Virden, allegedly arose as a misspelling of the German town Verden in the homeland of the 7th Duke of Manchester's wife, Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.

Geography

The town is located at the junction of 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 o ...

(also known as Highway #1) and Highway 83 (the "Palms to Pines" route) and is surrounded by the

Rural Municipality of Wallace – Woodworth The Rural Municipality of Wallace – Woodworth is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba that incorporated on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the RMs of Wallace and Woodworth and the Village of Elkhorn. It was f ...

. Virden is a regional service centre owing in part to its location, and it has a stable commercial sector, including several restaurants, gas stations, body shops, a movie theatre, and a performing arts theatre.

Climate

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 cultur ...

, Virden had a population of 3,118 living in 1,401 of its 1,508 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,322. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In 2011, the median age was 42.7 years old which is 2 years older than the national average at 40.6 years old. There were 1,446 dwellings in Virden with an occupancy rate of 95.1%, and the median cost of a dwelling at $159,748, more than $100,000 lower than the national average at $280,552. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, 96.8% of Virden residents are Canadian citizens, and about 3.2% of residents are recent immigrants (from 2001 to 2011). The racial make up of Virden is mostly

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

(92.0%), with a moderate Aboriginal population (5.5%); ''

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

(2.0%),

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

(3.5%)'', and a small visible minority population (2.7%), most of which are

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

(2.0%) or

multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

(0.5%).

Attractions

Virden Pioneer Home Museum

Known as the "Victorian Home on the Prairies", the Virden Pioneer Home Museum is located within a red brick veneer home built by James Frame in 1888. With an extensive collection of over eleven thousand donated artifacts relating to Virden and area, the museum is a must-see tourist destination. It is open May to September where guided tours are offered by knowledgeable guides. The museum is located at 390 King Street West in Virden.

Notable people

* Mary Carter, one of the first female judges in Saskatchewan; resided in Virden during childhood. * Isabella Dryden, educator and centenarian *

Happy Felsch Oscar Emil "Happy" Felsch (August 22, 1891 – August 17, 1964) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago White Sox from 1915 to 1920.

, American baseball player who played in Virden in the late 1920s after being banned for involvement in the

Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate l ...

. * Dorothy Ferguson, infielder and outfielder who played from 1945 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League * Jim Murray (ice hockey), former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player * Bud Sketchley, former right fielder for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

* Jim Treliving, Co-founder of

Boston Pizza Boston Pizza (BP), known as Boston's The Gourmet Pizza Restaurant and Sports Bar outside of Canada, is a Canadian multinational restaurant chain that owns and franchises locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico. History Boston Pizza ...

* Lila Bell Acheson Wallace, Co-founder of the ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' * Warren Winkler, former Chief Justice of Ontario * Carman Lapointe-Young, Under-Secretary-General for the

United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is an independent office in the United Nations Secretariat whose mandate is to "assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his internal oversight responsibilities in respect of the r ...

References

External links

Town of Virden
Official Website {{Authority control Towns in Manitoba