In the year 1901 a party of three visited Lake Winnipeg on the west shore, consisting of Sir William Whtye, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company; Captain William Robinson, merchant from Selkirk, Manitoba and Mr. Charles Roland of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Winnipeg. They made the trip by motor boat and finally landed on a beautiful crescent and called it Winnipeg Beach. The Canadian Pacific Railway went on to purchase 330 acres of beachfront land. Whytes intention was to beat the Canadian Northern Railway which planned to build a line to Lake Manitoba to service a beach resort there:...the Canadian Northern will be at Lake Manitoba next year, and unless we have something to offset this, at least as early as they arrive at Lake Manitoba, they will secure the business and keep it indefinitely. It is a case of who gets to the nearest watering place first. Their linkage to Lake Manitoba will be 70 miles as compared to our mileage to Lake Winnipeg of 40 miles. (Letter from C.E. McPherson, passenger agent CPR, to William Whyte). 

By the fall of 1902 the CPR had extended its Selkirk branch line north to the site, had built a station, dance pavilion, and cleared land for cottage construction. However, the first excursion train of 11 coaches with over 500 passengers did not arrive in Winnipeg Beach until June 6, 1903. In 1903, the CPR developed the first subdivision, consisting of the business section and cottage lots from Ash Avenue to Park Avenue. By 1905, the Beachside and Boundary Park developments north of the CPR subdivision had begun selling lots, which they advertised as being exclusive. 

The CPR made money from three different groups: cottagers, picnickers and day trippers. The campers or cottagers leased CPR lots and bought cottages constructed by the CPRs contractor S.B. Ritchie. Picnickers came out on excursion trains with their company, church, or fraternal organization, and the CPR provided catering services in the park or Pavilion. Day trippers were provided a midway, dancing in the pavilion, and rented bathing suits, towels, and lockers for swimming, and canoes, rowboats, and sailboats for lake activities. There were up to three picnics a day by 1907. Everyone paid fares to travel to the beach. Travel by car did not become common until the mid-1920s. On Dominion Day, 1920, it is probable that 30,000 people traveled by 11 special trains to Winnipeg Beach. There were 15,000 paid fares, and children traveled free. The romantic Moonlight Specials, first mentioned by Winnipeg newspapers in 1907, carried eager young men and women to the resort for the evening dances in the Dance Pavilion. 

A Winnipeg Beach Souvenir Album of 1908 shows a multitude of substantial cottages, tenting, and picnic grounds, boardwalks, fine hotel facilities, the first Pavilion, the CPR or Steamer Pier, and an abundance of recreational facilities such as boats, tennis courts, and well-landscaped grounds maintained by the CPR gardener. 

By 1925, the advertising brochure boasted that Winnipeg Beach was now “Western Canada’s greatest resort . . . Manitoba’s Summer Playground and Residential Resort.” It now had miles of well-graded streets, five miles of granolithic [concrete] walks, two parks with bowling greens and shale tennis courts, the grand Empress Hotel, the New Dips Roller Coaster, “Canada’s Finest Summer Dancing Palace – 14,000 square feet of Dancing Space”, Golf Course, and “Fast Frequent Train Service.”

The Winnipeg Beach Gazette of July 27, 1934, contained advertisements from 15 establishments that offered rooms for rent and/or room and board. And some cottages relied only on word-of-mouth advertising, so there were far more than 15 boarding places. A wide variety of businesses had developed to provide goods and services to cottagers and day-trippers, and to the farmers of the rural hinterland. There were now nine shale tennis courts, and three tourist parks. The resort was busy, even in the depth of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Winnipeg Beach declined as a tourist resort for many reasons. World War II produced restrictions on tourist rail travel. The development of other resort and park areas meant Winnipeggers had a wider variety of entertainment options. The dancing craze of the1920s, 1930s and 1940s petered out. And the development of the provincial road system, and pent up demand for cars after the war, reduced rail travel drastically.

In 1952 the CPR sold its interest in the Pavilion and Boardwalk concessions to private interests who operated them until they closed in 1964. The last “Moonlight” travelled the line to the beach in 1955, when the resort was in decline. The last passenger train left Winnipeg Beach on Labour Day, 1960. During the last few years, the Pavilion was reduced to having roller skaters on its magnificent hardwood floor. The Pavilion and boardwalk amusements were wooden structures which were not being maintained, and becoming decrepit and a fire hazard prior to their closure. In 1966, the province bought the 32 acres of lakefront, which included the Pavilion and attractions, from the estate of Harry Silverberg who had been running them through Beach Enterprises. The following year the Pavilion and concessions on the boardwalk were demolished, and the province developed a park along the waterfront. The glories of the past are commemorated by heritage panels erected along the new wood boardwalk. The only CPR structure which remains is the 1928 water tower, now a Provincial Heritage Site.

Source: Manitoba Historic Archives