Dreams from A to Z: the legacy of the Alphabet Railway
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- Published on Sunday, July 10, 2016
Media Release
Our project brings a focus to small prairie towns in 2016. The rail line that has captured our imagination is a very specific slice of Canadiana which provides us with parameters that are current, national and universal. When Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) laid a rail line across Canada’s northern prairies at the beginning of the 20th century, it promised a new world of “Health, Wealth and Happiness,” according to a 1913 GTP ad. Despite its early bankruptcy and subsequent absorption by Canadian National Railways (CN) in 1923, GTP was instrumental in creating community along this new route from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, B.C. Today, the section of railway between Portage la Prairie and Jasper is fondly known as the Alphabet Railway. CN freight trains ply the rail line, maintaining its role as the heart of the local communities and intrinsically tying it to international economic progress. Interestingly, the extensive network of rail lines that once snaked across the Prairies, it is only this line that still carries passengers on Via Rail.
Read more: Dreams from A to Z: the legacy of the Alphabet Railway
My Perspective - Consumer power 2.0
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- Published on Friday, July 8, 2016
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
There’s a farmer in New Jersey who posts videos to YouTube. A hay producer, his videos usually include reviews and demos of equipment and clips of him farming or fixing things. His channel, onelonelyfarmer, has over 57,000 subscribers and over 34 million views.
Town honours its past
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- Published on Friday, July 8, 2016
By Jessie Bell
The hamlet of Harding has a remarkable collection of cairns and plaques to remember its ancestors. One of the most interesting is Harding Community Center. The centre was once a church (Methodist and then United), built in 1893 at the north end of the town. Due to larger farms, rural depopulation and declining interest, it became vacant and was closed around 1967-68. Since Harding Agricultural Society needed more accommodation at fair time, the building was moved to the town’s southwest entrance, at the fairgrounds, in 1999. It was set on a cement slab, with crawl space to allow room for a furnace. It became Harding Community Center and has since been refurbished inside and out, insulated for the first time, has new wiring, plumbing, air conditioning and an exterior wheelchair ramp.
Postal disruptions and paper delivery
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- Published on Friday, July 8, 2016
Due to the impending strike/lockout at Canada Post some rural lock box locations could not get their July 8 Neepawa Banner. This amounted to about five per cent of our papers.
We have placed extra copies of the Neepawa Banner at our drop off locations in Neepawa to help compensate.
We have no idea how long the postal disruptions may be so if you missed getting a paper and are comfortable with an internet version in the interim, please email us a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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