What's in a name . . . 

The Assiniboine Trail has been re-named several times. It was the beginning of the Carleton Trail; the longest trail being some nine hundred miles from the Forks, to Upper Fort des Prairies at Edmonton. Later it was known as the Great Highway according to an 1874 map, then part of the Trans-Canada Highway. Currently it is designated as Provincial Trunk Highway 26 - The Assiniboine Trail.

Beaver was named circa 1876 by Mrs. Young, whose home was the first house in the district built of logs. She named the community in recognition of the many beaver dams found in the creek.

The first mention of the Cypress River is in Alexander Henry’s diary of August 11, 1806, when he records crossing it on his journey.

Edwin was first called “Fox District” for Jerry Fox, a local storekeeper and stationmaster. In 1907 the village was re-named for Edwin James, the manager of the Canadian Northern Railroad.

Gladstone was first settled in 1872 with the area then known as Palestine. It was later named for Great Britain Prime Minister William E. Gladstone.

Headingley was founded in 1853 when the Archdiocese of Rupertsland acquired two River Lots from the Hudson's Bay Company for the purposes of erecting a church and a school. In 1854 the first Holy Trinity Anglican Church was built and it was named after the church in Headingley, Leeds, England, which sponsored the construction.

Holland was named after Mr. A. C. Holland, the first postmaster for the settlement.

Landseer was named in 1904 after the noted English Animal Painter, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer.

Langruth is named after its founders: Mr. George W. Langdon and Mr. W. Judson Ruth. The village of Langruth is located on the west side of Lake Manitoba.

Littleton Founder, Robert Little was thought to be the first man to cross the Tiger Hills with a wagon, as he moved his possessions via Emerson from Ontario in 1879.

The first pioneers settled in the Matchetville area 6 miles north of Treherne in 1888. For a few early years, there were only two women. As the young men married, the name was changed from “Bachelorville” to “Matchetville”. The Methodist church was built in 1898, later became the United Church, and was used until 1958. It was sold and moved in 1961, and continues to be used as a place of worship.

MacGregor was named in 1881, during the building of the railroad, at a point where they arrived at the end of steel. Named by the then Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne, for his clergyman, Rev. Dr. James MacGregor, at St. Cuthbert Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Lynch’s Point was a favorite spot for many family picnics of the early settlers who came here and settled along Rat Creek & the Whitemud River. Some of these people were the folks who came with the Lynch Party, who arrived in the early 1870s.

Pigeon Lake was a body of water originally part of the Assiniboine River bed. Its name came from the large number of passenger pigeons, which abounded here. Their nests in the trees were so numerous that they almost obliterated the trees. The Hudson's Bay Company store issued free gunpowder to anyone who would shoot the pigeons.

Rathwell was named for Jack Rathwell, who owned land in the vicinity in 1886 when the railway came through.

The history of St. Eustache began at Baie St. Paul when Father George-Antoine Belcourt established a mission there in 1834, at the corner of Highway #26 and Route 248. However, due to numerous and repeated flooding, the prosperous village of Baie St. Paul was moved in 1888 from the north side of the Assiniboine River to its present site between Highway #26 and the Trans-Canada Highway. The name St. Eustache was chosen because the parishioners, many of them Metis, were hunters and St. Eustache is the patron saint of hunters.

In 1823, Cuthbert Grant was selected by Gov. George Simpson and the Hudson Bay Company, to initiate and lead the move of the Metis people at Pembina, which had been declared south of the border, to the White Horse Plain. Upon their arrival, the settlement was called Grantown, and Cuthbert Grant hailed as the leader of this "New Nation", the Metis. Grantown was predominantly French with Roman Catholic beliefs. Early church services were held in Grant's home, and later the area became the second Catholic parish in Manitoba. The Metis began mixed farming, but continued to hunt buffalo twice a year. The well-known Red River cart was also built in Grantown. In 1854, after Cuthbert Grant passed away, Grantown became St. Francois Xavier, so named for the original parish in Pembina.

Sidney was named by the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, in 1881 for Sidney Austin, a correspondent for the London Graphic. The Marquis’ wife, Princess Louise was the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, and travelled to the Rockies to become acquainted with the problems encountered by homesteaders settling in the Canadian West. Sidney Austin was dispatched to chronicle their adventures in the “wild west”, tales gobbled up by audiences in “civilization”.

Treherne was named after its first post master.

Westbourne was first named “White Mud River Settlement”, later changed to “Wahputunestee Seepee”, then named for their first missionary, Rev. John West.

White Horse Plain was so named for an Indian legend. Early one summer in the 1690s, a band of Assiniboines was camped on the banks of the Assiniboine River, about ten miles west of present day Winnipeg. A young Cree brave from Lake Winnipegosis entered the Assiniboine camp and asked if he might marry the chief's daughter. The chief was offered a beautiful and spirited snow-white steed, a Blanco Diablo, which came from the famed breed in Mexico, and an agreement was reached. This agreement upset a Sioux brave from Devil's Lake in North Dakota, also in love with the chief's daughter. He vowed to capture and torture his rival under the pretext of a reprisal for past wars. Aware of the danger, the Assiniboine chief saddled the white horse, and advised the couple to escape under cover of darkness. When the Sioux learned of the escape, they followed, and eventually overtook the couple on the west bank of the Assiniboine river a few miles west of where the St.  Francois-Xavier parish church now stands. Arrows killed both warrior and his bride. The white horse escaped, and according to legend, continued to roam the neighbouring plains for many years. The Assiniboines believed that the spirits carried the horse to the spirit world where he was reunited with the Cree brave. The aboriginal peoples named this land, where the white horse ran free in honour of the powerful animal.