Gypsumville is a community in

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 ...

, Canada. It is 242 kilometres north-northwest 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 ...

in the

Interlake Region The Interlake Region is an informal geographic region of the Canadian province of Manitoba that lies roughly between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The region comprises 14 rural municipalities, one city ( S ...

on the north bank of Lake St. Martin in the

Rural Municipality of Grahamdale Grahamdale is a rural municipality (RM) in the province of Manitoba in Western Canada. It lies in the Interlake Region. It was incorporated as a Local Government District (LGD) on 1 January 1945, and became a Rural Municipality in 1997. The m ...

. There are 285 people living in and 175 housing units within the community.

History

The community was named Gypsumville after a post office with a same name was opened in 1905. The office was named after the

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

deposits found in the area. Deposits were discovered in 1888 and by 1890 mining operations begun. A shortline

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

was built from Gypsumville to the shore of

Lake Manitoba Lake Manitoba () is the 14th largest lake in Canada and the 33rd largest lake in the world with a total area of . It is located within the Canadian province of Manitoba about northwest of the province's capital, Winnipeg, at . History The la ...

, where the gypsum was

transload Transloading, also known as cross-docking, is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another. It is most commonly employed when one mode cannot be used for the entire trip, such as when goods must be shipped in ...

ed on to

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

s and shipped to a railhead on the Whitemud River at south end of the lake, near the present community of Westbourne. In 1912, the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonto ...

, which later became part of

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

, built a rail line in to Gypsumville along the CN Oak Point subdivision. Both of the railway lines are now abandoned with CN closing their line in 1992.

CFS Gypsumville

In 1962 RCAF Station Gypsumville was opened in town as a

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North American Aerospace Defense Comm ...

radar station by the

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canad ...

and supported as a mini-base until 1987 when the then Canadian Forces Station Gypsumville closed down.

References

External links

Grahamdale.ca: Gypsumville
{{MBDivision18 Unincorporated communities in Interlake Region, Manitoba