Anola is an unincorporated community in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 ...

. It is located east of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

and north of Steinbach in the

Rural Municipality of Springfield Springfield is a rural municipality (RM) in Manitoba, Canada. It stretches from urban industrial development on the eastern boundary of the city of Winnipeg, through urban, rural residential, agricultural and natural landscapes, to the Agassiz ...

. The community has a population of approximately 200 people.

History

The Anola area is part of the traditional territory of

Anishnaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They in ...

and

Swampy Cree The Swampy Cree people, also known by their Exonym and endonym, autonyms ''Néhinaw'', ''Maskiki Wi Iniwak'', ''Mushkekowuk,'' ''Maškékowak, Maskegon'' or ''Maskekon'' (and therefore also ''Muskegon'' and ''Muskegoes'') or by exonyms includin ...

First Nations. In 1870, the area became part of the new province of Manitoba. In 1871, the area was covered under

Treaty 1 ''Treaty 1'' (also known as the "Stone Fort Treaty") is an agreement established on August 3, 1871, between the Crown and the Anishinaabe and Swampy Cree, Canadian based First Nations. The first of a series of treaties called the Numbered Treatie ...

between the British Crown and the First Nations. The treaty facilitated the settlement of southern Manitoba including agricultural settlements in the Anola area. In 1907, when the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

expressed an interest in the district, the land was sold, and the village of Free Port was born. The name changed in 1912 to ''Anola''.

Etymology

According to the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

, the name ''Anola'' is an "invented name," and the place was formerly known as ''Richland Post Office''. A 1905 letter from M. Holloway, who ran the Richland Post Office which served the area, may have prompted this conclusion. In his correspondence to the

Geographic Board of Canada The Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) is a national committee with a secretariat in Natural Resources Canada, part of the Government of Canada, which authorizes the names used and name changes on official federal government maps of Canada ...

, it was indicated that residents were unaware of why it was so named except "as a more convenient means of referring to it than Township 10-7E." Ted Stone states in his book ''The Story behind Manitoba Names'':

Locals sometimes ascribe the name to the rise in elevation there. The area is on a slight but perceptible, ridge. According to this theory it's on "a knoll," which gave rise to the name Anola. Others have suggested that Anola is named after the wife of a railway official. This theory has some credence since Anola comes at the end of a series of rail points (Elma, Hazel, Vivian) using women's first names. It's likely that the same official named at least two of these towns after one or more daughters. Since all four towns received their names at about the same time, Elma, Hazel, Vivian and Anola may have been sisters. Or perhaps the local legend is correct and Anola was the mother of the other three.

Amenities

Anola has a K-8 school. Anola school offers a wide array of programming including French, band, music, choir, grade 6-8 life options, resource, counselling, inter/intra-school athletics, and school-wide talent development program. Anola is home to The 10 Acre Woods, a petting farm and animal rescue centre. In mid 2019,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

began the process of " Urbanizing" the Anola and surrounding area's postal system, thus transitioning Anola addresses from the rural Postal Code R0E 0A0 to the new

Forward Sortation Area A Canadian postal code () is a six-character string that forms part of a postal address in Canada. Like British, Irish, Dutch, and Argentinian postcodes, Canada's postal codes are alphanumeric. They are in the format ''A1A 1A1'', where ''A' ...

of R5L.

Notable people

Corey Koskie Cordel Leonard "Corey" Koskie (born June 28, 1973) is a Canadian former professional baseball third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball for the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Milwaukee Brewers. On February 4, 2015, Koskie was el ...

, former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player for the Minnesota Twins. * Al Simmons (musician), children's performer/musician

References

External links

Official Anola Homepage

Emergency Services

Anola School
{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Eastman Region, Manitoba