Gimli, Manitoba

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  Bjorn (guest)

  The mother colony of several north American Icelandic settlements, Gimli developed after a series of natural disasters forced ICELANDERS to leave their island in 1874-76. Some 200 arrived near Gimli in October 1875 to settle New Iceland, a tract of land outside the boundaries of Manitoba reserved for their use by the Dominion government. They named their settlement after the "Hall of Gimli," known as paradise in Norse mythology. The settlers experienced extreme hardships - smallpox, flooding, religious differences - which led to out-migrations, but they also developed schools, a newspaper, a fishing industry and a self-governing colony with a sophisticated constitution. New Iceland came under Manitoba's jurisdiction in 1881, and by the late 1890s the area was receiving Ukrainian, Polish, German and Hungarian immigrants.

  19 years ago | reply | hide comment