Selkirk is a city in the western

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 ...

, located on the Red River about northeast 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 ...

, the provincial capital. It has a population of 10,504 as of the 2021 census. The mainstays of the local economy are

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

, a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

, and a

psychiatric hospital A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe Mental disorder, mental disorders. These institutions cater t ...

. A

vertical lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swin ...

over the Red River connects Selkirk with the smaller town of East Selkirk. The city is connected to Winnipeg via Highway 9 and is served by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

. The city was named in honour of the Scotsman

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk FRS FRSE (20 June 1771 – 8 April 1820) was a Scottish landowner and philanthropist. He was noteworthy as a Scottish philanthropist who sponsored immigrant settlements in Canada at the Red River Colony. E ...

, who obtained the grant to establish a

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

in the Red River area in 1813.

History

Landing of the Selkirk Settlers Red River 1812

The present-day city is near the centre of the area purchased by the Earl of Selkirk from the

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 ...

. The first settlers of the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...

arrived in 1813. Although the settlers negotiated a treaty with the

Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and Ojibwa ethnonyms, other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band governm ...

Indians of the area, the commercial rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

gave rise to violent confrontations between the settlers and the trading companies. In recognition of the Earl's importance in bringing settlers to the region, the town was named Selkirk and incorporated in 1882.

Economy

Entertainment

Chuck The Channel Cat - Catfish Statue - Selkirk Manitoba

Selkirk is advertised as the ''Catfish Capital of the World'' due to the large amounts of

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

in the nearby Red River. This nickname was part of an advertising campaign to attract

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

anglers to fish for trophy-sized catfish. Selkirk is also home to Chuck the Channel Cat, a fiberglass statue of a catfish that measures long. The catfish was named after local sport fisherman Chuck Norquay, who drowned while doing what he loved most: fishing in the Red River. After Chuck was built in 1986, the town council decided to place Chuck in front of Smitty's Restaurant on Main Street. Keenora Museum

The

Marine Museum of Manitoba The Marine Museum of Manitoba, at Selkirk, Manitoba, was established in 1972 to gather ships, artifacts, and items relating to shipping, to tell the story of the development and the operation of transportation on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River of ...

, a collection of historical marine artifacts of Lake Winnipeg and the Red River area, is located in Selkirk. Selkirk is also the site of a

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; ) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and i ...

base. The yearly Selkirk Fair and Rodeo is held to celebrate the area's agricultural history. It celebrated its 130th anniversary in 2008.

Employment

The Selkirk Mental Health Centre, the largest mental health facility in the province, is a major employer in the city. It is surrounded by a park-like campus on the outskirts of the city.

Gerdau Gerdau S.A. is the largest producer of long steel in the Americas, and the 33rd largest steelmaker worldwide, with approximately 13 million tons of production in 2023. Gerdau uses mini mills, integrated mills, and direct reduced iron plants; 71 ...

, owned by Gerdau S.A. of Porto Alegre, Brazil, operates a steel minimill in Selkirk. This steel mill (known locally as MRM or "The Manitoba Rolling Mills") is another major employer. Selkirk has three community newspapers: '' The Interlake Enterprise'', '' The Selkirk Record'', and '' The Selkirk Journal''. Amphibex excavator icebreakers were at work breaking up ice flows on the Red River in 2009.Ice Hammer
''

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

''. Accessed: 8 January 2011. Ice breakers and backhoes were to be strategically placed along the

Red River Floodway The Red River Floodway () is an artificial flood control waterway in Western Canada. It is a long channel which, during flood periods, takes part of the Red River's flow around the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba to the east and discharges it back ...

, which might have needed to be opened before the ice was fully melted. Officials examined past ice jams and provided contingency plans if the Floodway jammed upstream of bridges or on tight corners.

Sports

Selkirk is home to the

Selkirk Steelers The Selkirk Steelers are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. They are members of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, a part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League and Hockey Canada. History Junior "A" hockey in Selkir ...

of the

Manitoba Junior Hockey League The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) is a Junior ice hockey, Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Manitoba and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The MJHL consists of thirt ...

, who play in the Selkirk Recreation Complex. Selkirk is also home to the

Selkirk Fishermen The Selkirk Fishermen are a junior "B" ice hockey team based in Selkirk, Manitoba. They are members of the Capital Region Junior Hockey League (CRJHL). The franchise was founded in 1917. The Fishermen won the Abbott Cup in 1920, making them t ...

of the Capital Region Junior Hockey League. Selkirk has hosted major events in conjunction with the city of

, such as select games of the

2007 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2007 IIHF Women's World Championships were held from April 3 to 10, 2007 in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. There were no championships in 2006 due to the Torino Olympic tournament. Games were played at the MTS Centre and Selkirk ...

. In 2009, Selkirk was host to the

Telus Cup The Telus Cup is Canada's national Minor hockey, under-18 ice hockey club championship. It is an annual event, held by Hockey Canada each April. From 1979 to 2003, the national championship was sponsored by Air Canada. The current champions ...

, Canada's national midget hockey championship, with the Winnipeg Thrashers as the host team. The Notre Dame Hounds defeated the Calgary Buffaloes 4–0 in the gold medal game, which was broadcast live from Selkirk on TSN. Selkirk is also the home of the Selkirk Curling Club which has hosted numerous curling events, including the Masters Grand Slam of Curling in 2014, Canadian Junior Curling Championships in 1997 and the Viterra/Safeway Select Manitoba Men's Provincial Curling Championships.

Geography

Selkirk is located 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 ...

of Manitoba, about 22 km northeast of the provincial capital

on the Red River. A vertical lift bridge over the Red River connects Selkirk with the smaller town of East Selkirk. The city mostly borders the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, except to the east, where it borders the Rural Municipality of St. Clements across the Red River. The terrain is extremely flat with fields of wheat and canola surrounding the city.

Climate

Due to Selkirk's position on the edge of the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

, there is a moderate 510.4 mm (20.1 inches) of precipitation annually. Selkirk has a climate with four very distinct seasons. A general year will include warm (sometimes hot) summers, cold winters, and a comfortable spring and autumn. Selkirk has recorded a temperature as high as in June 1995 and a temperature as low as in February 1966. Selkirk has 21 days with snowfall per year, from about November (sometimes as early as September or October) to around April (sometimes as late as May). General seasons *Winter: November to March *Spring: April to May *Summer: June to August *Autumn: September to October

Water

The City of Selkirk gets its water from four carbonate aquifer wells in the City and two in the R.M. of St. Andrews. Water is then cleaned at the Selkirk Water Treatment Plant before being sent out to distribution lines. Five of the six wells are deep, while the Tower well is shallower. Because of this water from the Tower well needs more maintenance. McLean Well (drilled in 1959), Christie Well 1 (drilled in 1968. used only in emergencies), Rosser Well (drilled in 1987), Tower Well (1997), Christie Well 2 (drilled in 2015), Render Well North (drilled in 2017), Render Well South (drilled in 2017). The Selkirk Water Tower is a prominent feature of the area. It was constructed in 1961 as a replacement for a previous tank built in 1909. The current water tower has a maximum storage capacity of 946,000 litres. In March 2020, the City announced a local design competition that would see the repainting of the structure. In August 2016, the City of Selkirk partnered with the provincial and federal governments to cost share upgrades to its water treatment and distribution infrastructure. The Selkirk project was estimated to cost C$35.2 million and would include a new water treatment plant. The expanded system would be large enough to serve St. Andrews and the

Lower Fort Garry Lower Fort Garry was built in 1830 by the Hudson's Bay Company on the western bank of the Red River, north of the original Fort Garry (now in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Treaty 1 was signed there. A devastating flood destroyed Fort Garry ...

Historic Park. Construction began in August 2018 to replace the aging wastewater facility built in 1976. The new one would cost C$35.9 million, the largest capital works project in the City's history, with construction expected to be completed by January 2020.

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; ), 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 ...

, Selkirk had a population of 10,504 living in 4,417 of its 4,643 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 10,278. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The median household income in 2005 for Selkirk was $42,502, which is below the Manitoba provincial average of $47,875.

Places of interest

* Selkirk—Red River former federal electoral district * Selkirk Water Aerodrome * Selkirk Airport *

Red River Trails The Red River Trails were a network of Red River ox cart, ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in Canada under British Imperial control (1764-1867), British North America with the head of naviga ...

Fort Gibraltar Fort Gibraltar was founded in 1809 by Alexander Macdonell of Greenfield of the North West Company in present-day Manitoba, Canada. It was located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in or near the area now known as The Forks i ...

fur-trading post destroyed by early Selkirk settlers *

Fort Maurepas (Canada) Fort Maurepas was the name of two forts, or one fort in two locations, built by the French in the Lake Winnipeg area in the 1730s: * First Fort Maurepas (Red River) * Second Fort Maurepas (Winnipeg River) They were both named after Jean-Frédé ...

fur trading post built 1734 near the present town * Selkirk Lift Bridge *

national historic site, five kilometres south of Selkirk

Notable people

Sports

* Terry Ball – hockey player * Rich Chernomaz – hockey player *

Kerri Einarson Kerri Einarson (; born Kerri Flett; October 3, 1987) is a Canadian Métis curler from Camp Morton, Manitoba, in the Rural Municipality of Gimli. Einarson is a four-time women's national champion in curling, skipping her team to victory in the , , ...

– curler *

Paul Goodman Paul Goodman (September 9, 1911 – August 2, 1972) was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the ...

– hockey player * Alfie Michaud – hockey player (goaltender) * Andrew Murray – hockey player * Harry Oliver – hockey player *

Bullet Joe Simpson Harold Edward Joseph "Bullet Joe" Simpson (August 13, 1893 – December 26, 1973) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Edmonton Eskimos and New York Americans between 1920 and 1931. He later served as coach of the ...

– soldier, hockey player and coach who was flag bearer for Canada at 1932 Olympics *

Jimmy Skinner James Donald Skinner (January 12, 1917 – July 11, 2007) was the head coach, chief scout, and farm director, director of player personnel, director of hockey operations, assistant general manager, and general manager for the Detroit Red Wings ...

– hockey coach * Neil Wilkinson – hockey player

Politicians

* David Bjornson – Member of Parliament 1988–1993 * Greg Dewar – Manitoba provincial politician * Ron Fewchuk – Member of Parliament 1993–1997 * Ed Helwer – member of the Manitoba legislature 1988–2003 *

Hugh McFadyen Hugh Daniel McFadyen (born 31 May 1967) is a lawyer and politician in Manitoba, Canada. From 2006 to 2012, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, and Leader of the Opposition in the Manitoba legislature. Followin ...

– Manitoba politician, MLA *

Howard Pawley Howard Russell Pawley (November 21, 1934 – December 30, 2015) was a Canadian politician and professor who was the 18th premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988. Prior to his premiership, Pawley served in various ministerial positions after his ...

– MLA Selkirk 1969–1988; Premier of Manitoba 1981–1988 *

Sam Uskiw Samuel Uskiw (October 18, 1933 in East Selkirk, Manitoba – March 19, 2011) was a politician and political fundraiser in Manitoba, Canada. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1966 to 1986, and served ...

– Manitoba politician, born in East Selkirk

Other

Trevor Boris Trevor Boris (born September 10, 1980) is a Canadian comedian, writer and television producer. Television work Boris is one of the stars of MuchMusic's '' Video on Trial'', and is also a star of '' Stars Gone Wild''. He has appeared on many oth ...

– comedian * Paul Boyd – currently broadcasting journalistic reporter for

WSOC-TV WSOC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and Telemundo. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside Kannapolis-licensed independent station WAXN-TV ...

Robert Atkinson Davis Robert Atkinson Davis (March 9, 1841 – January 7, 1903) was a businessman and Manitoba politician who served as the fourth premier of Manitoba. Davis was born in Dudswell, Quebec, Dudswell, in the eastern townships of Lower Canada (now Quebec ...

– businessman and politician, supported running the railway through Winnipeg instead of Selkirk * The Farrell Bros. –

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

(music) group * Goody Grace – singer and musician * Sherisse Laurence – singer and entertainer * Kevin Patterson – doctor, writer, grew up in Selkirk * William Prince – musician * Ellen Reid – keyboard player for the Canadian rock band Crash Test Dummies * Michael Rowe – Canadian author and journalist, attended St. John's Cathedral Boys' School in Selkirk 1977–1981 * Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, scholar *

Murray Sinclair Calvin Murray Sinclair (Ojibway name Mizanay (Mizhana) Gheezhik; January 24, 1951 – November 4, 2024) was a Canadian politician who was a member of the Senate, and a First Nations lawyer who served as chairman of the Indian Residential Scho ...

, jurist, Senator and head of

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC; []) was a truth and reconciliation commission active in Canada from 2008 to 2015, organized by the parties of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The commission was offi ...

* John Tanner – explorer, guide, worked for the Selkirk colony *

Paul Thorlakson Paul Henrik Thorbjorn Thorlakson, (October 5, 1895 – October 19, 1989) was a Canadian physician and Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. Paul Thorlaksonwas born in Park River, North Dakota and grew up in Selkirk, Manitoba. He was the thi ...

– soldier, surgeon,

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

, co-founder of the Winnipeg Clinic

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Manitoba Winnipeg Metro Region Populated places in Interlake Region, Manitoba