Duck Bay is a community located 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 ...

, along the western shores of Lake Winnipegosis. The primary industry of the community is fishing, trapping and some agriculture. The Duck Bay wharf provides berthing for 15–20

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...

s and 3–5 whitefish vessels. The inhabitants of the community once called ''Baie de Canard'' (French for Duck Bay) are mostly

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

y and French ancestry.

History

Duck Bay was established at the turn of the century as a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

trading post, and is named after the bay on which it is situated. A gravel road to Camperville, Manitoba was completed in 1952 (now known as Provincial Road 272). A mystery surrounds the death of Father Darveau O.M.I. His body was found on the shore near the village of Duck Bay and a monument marks the site. He either drowned accidentally or was murdered. The monument reads "Here was found the body of Rev. Fr. J. E. Darveau Missionary, born 1816 Massacred June 4, 1844". Another larger monument on the grounds of the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

mission in Camperville reads "In memory of the Rev. J. E. Darveau, missionary. Born in Quebec, 17 March 1816. Massacred 22 miles north 4 June 1844".

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Duck Bay had a population of 350 living in 111 of its 117 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 374. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

External links

Palmer, Gwen. "Camperville and Duck Bay. Part 1 - Camperville" ''Manitoba Pageant'', Autumn 1972, Volume 18, Number 2
{{Manitoba Designated places in Manitoba Northern communities in Manitoba