Birtle, Manitoba

Birtle is a small town of 690 people (2001 Census), located on the prairies of western Manitoba, Canada at the junction of highways 83 and 42. Incorporated in 1884, the town is situated in the Birdtail River valley. A pleasant place to visit in the summertime (May to September), it features a well-kept golf course, campground, and tennis courts, as well as healthy baseball and soccer leagues. Summers are dry and sunny, with temperatures about 20 degrees Celsius. The winters (November to March) are typical Canadian cold (− 30 °C) with plenty of snow. Hockey and curling are popular pastimes, and the town possesses both a hockey rink and a curling rink for such pursuits. The Birtle General Hospital is a surprisingly full-featured hospital for a town of this size. The local high school (grades 7 to 12), Birtle Collegiate Institute, draws students from surrounding communities, swelling its enrolment to 175 students.

The main industries of the area are agriculture and livestock: cattle and hogs primarily, and to a lesser extent sheep, goats, dairy cows, etc. The climate and soil are best suited for hard grains such as wheat, rye and barley, but canola also thrives. Crops are sown in spring (May) and harvested at the end of summer (August/September).

Most residents are multi-generation Canadians, mainly descended from Europe, with pockets of Ukrainian Canadians and French. About 10 kilometres south of the town is Birdtail Sioux First Nation, home to 315 people (2001 Census). English is the primary language of the town and surrounding area, except for St. Lazare, a vibrant French-speaking community about 20 km to the west.

Birtle has a picturesque park with facilities for swimming, tennis, and picnicing. Another attraction is the Birdtail Country Museum. It is housed in an historic stone building which is over 100 years old, located on Birtle's Main Street. This building was originally constructed in the early 1900's to be used as the Union Bank. Later it was purchased by the Royal Bank of Canada. The main floor was the bank premises. The second floor was the bank manager's living quarters. In 1983, the building was purchased by the Town and Rural Municipality of Birtle. It officially opened as the Birdtail Country Museum on May 24, 1984 as a joint centennial project of the Town and R. M.of Birtle. Inside are over 4,000 artifacts related to this area. Visitors will find historical items such as the diaries of original settlers (Alfred Morton's dating back to 1878), button hooks for ladies boots, and ice-saws and ice-tongs which were used for harvesting ice from the Birdtail River in the winter. One of the features of the Museum is the many trophies awarded to Samuel Larcombe, one of the early settlers of Birtle. In 1917, Larcombe, the "World Wheat King", developed a variety of rust-resistant wheat. The second floor of the Museum is set up to resemble a Victorian home. People often come to the Museum to do genealogy research using the microfilm reader which holds the entire collection of the Birtle Eye Witness newspaper dating back over 100 years. This museum is now closed.

The Birdtail River is quite small and slow flowing, but is dammed just above the Birtle Park, creating a small lake suitable for canoing, fishing, and swimming.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom there is also a village called [http://www.birtle.org Birtle] in nestles in the Pennines and overlooks Manchester. It's also sometimes referred to as Bircle or Birkle which means Birch Hill. The local church is The Church of Saint John the Baptist but locals know it as Bircle Church

External links

* [http://www.town.birtle.mb.ca Birtle website]
* [http://www.mts.net/~agrifame/larcombe.html Samuel Larcombe]