The Deloraine-Winchester Historical Society has been delving deeper into local history since they formed just over a year and half ago.

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Ogilvie Grain Elevator/Manitoba Pool Elevator B (Deloraine, Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester) – Manitoba Heritage Society

Local Deloraine member, Jan McLelland says the groups mandate is to discover and preserve the heritage of the entire municipality of Deloraine-Winchester, to establish an archives center and make that information available to the public.  Establishing a local museum is also in their sights.

“It’s very important to preserve a community’s history,” shares McLelland.  “I think every community likes to know how the town came to be and who was here first, and what did they accomplish.  There is some pretty interesting history in the [grain] elevators that none of us knew.”

The Deloraine area has little as far as documented history for the town’s archives, other than the local history books, the latest being some 20 years old now.

McLelland says their first mandate is to identify the heritage sites in and around Deloraine and throughout the entire municipality, with the newly named ‘Prairie Sentinels Park’ as a starting point.  The Park (formerly known as Nygard Park) is the site where the Ogilvie Grain Elevator stood in the center of town.

“The town has given us space in the Tourism Booth to establish the archives, or give us at least a temporary home,” she explains, “and to give us a meeting place and a space to store things.”



Recognizing the space they were standing on was the original home of the Ogilvie Grain Elevator built in 1886/1887.

Upon wishing to rename the park to ‘Prairie Sentinels Park’ the committee gave a formal proposal to their local Council to inquire about the naming rights.  Council agreed to re-develop the park to celebrate the heritage of the town of Deloraine and the municipality.