Discover Pinawa

The sun is shining! Pinawa is looking its best today. It's time to enjoy summer while it's here!

Now that the heat has broken, it's a better time than ever to check out Pinawa's hiking trails! We are quite literally surrounded by awesome hiking on , a trans-Canada network of hiking and water trails. Do the 12km lap of Pinawa, complete with a perfectly placed lunch stop at !

See Pinawa from two sides this weekend! Hike the Ironwood Trail down the scenic Winnipeg River in the morning, and then cool down with a float down the Pinawa Channel in the afternoon.

Throwback Thursday time! People have been using the Winnipeg River for at least 4800 years. The period of its heaviest use was probably the fur trade, from around 1700-1850. The Pinawa Channel was useful for bypassing the Seven Sisters Falls complex and it's 7 to 11 portages. Because of this, many journals mention Pinawa as a campsite on their route, like this note from Alexander Henry the Younger. His experience seems to have been a better one than his cousin Alexander Henry the Elder, who bemoaned that "the mosquitoes were here in such clouds as to prevent us from taking aim at the ducks."

📷1: The Fall of Moving Waters, Winnipeg River. George Back, via Library and Archives Canada
📷2: New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest, Alexander Henry and David Thompson, Ed. E. Coues.
Info: Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America by Barbara Huck

In the Local Business Spotlight this week, it's the Pinawa Art Gallery! Since 2013, a non-profit organization of artists called Pinawa ART 211 have operated the gallery in the W.B. Lewis Business Centre, showcasing and selling art created by members in the Pinawa area. The gallery also hosts art programming, and has art placements in the central courtyard garden of the Lewis Centre.

With over a dozen participating artists, the gallery offers art in a variety of mediums. If you've never been, it's worth the visit! Check them out on between 10-3 on Mondays, and Thursday through Saturday.

@ Pinawa Art Gallery

Pinawa is a famously good place to spot wildlife! It's important to know how to enjoy Pinawa's wild side safely:
• Be on the lookout for deer when driving! At all times, and especially around dawn and dusk, stay alert and focused on the road and surroundings.
• Keep your distance! No matter what animal you encounter, give it plenty of space. If an animal is too close, drop any bags, stand tall, and speak loudly and clearly while backing away.
• Be bear smart! Don't litter, and make sure anything scented or flavoured makes it to a bear-proof garbage can. Keep pets leashed, and stay aware of your surroundings, including signs of bear activity.


@ Pinawa, Manitoba

A dry summer is no problem for the Pinawa Channel! The 13km run from Pinawa to Old Pinawa Dam is a great paddling day trip, with reliable water levels and fun features for the adventurous.

*Know your limits in moving water! Paddle Manitoba offers courses that teach you how to stay safe. Always wear a lifejacket and never go alone!*

For this week's Throwback Thursday, we have a sample of Pinawa's first newspaper. This first edition was published in 1963, a full 6 months before the first permanent residents arrived at the town! Distributed to the future Manitobans at Chalk River, it included information such as rents ($85-160/mo!), and charts comparing weather and consumer prices in Ottawa and Winnipeg. Reports on construction and future amenities filled out the rest of the paper, as edited by John Leng.

**With information from Pinawa by Chris Saunders and Louise Daymond, 2017**

@ Pinawa, Manitoba

For our first local business feature, we're looking at an iconic part of Pinawa's waterfront: The Burger Boat. Now in its 5th summer in its current iteration, The Burger Boat offers up a classic menu, as well as a popular selection of ice cream! They are often open late through the weekend, find their hours on Facebook or call them (204-754-8249) to find out and place an order!

Specialty: Lazy River Poutine, with onion rings, cheese, gravy and more!

Best seller: Ice cream, closely followed by Bacon Cheeseburger.

For 30km on each side of Pinawa, The Great Trail offers pristine gravel riding conditions. Come out and ride this hidden gem for cycling in Manitoba! Recommended rides: Pinawa to Seven Sisters Falls return, Pinawa to Lac du Bonnet return, or if you're ambitious, do both!

With the long weekend coming up, it's unlikely the Suspension Bridge will be this empty for a while! Allow cross-traffic to clear the bridge before stepping on, and be mindful of others that may be waiting for you. Even if you feel safe squeezing by, others may not.

@ Pinawa Suspension Bridge

In our first post, we're going all the way back to 1906 and the creation of the Pinawa Channel as we know it! It was excavated by hand and horse-power between 1902-1906 to bring more water to the site of . The current diversion dam lies almost exactly on top of the old control dam! The third photo shows "Manitoba Rock", at the south-east (back right) side of the stack of rocks shown in photos 1 and 2. It bears a striking resemblance to the shape of , and local legend has it that it was carved by the excavation crews during downtime. If so, they sure were visionaries: Manitoba would not take on its recognizable current shape until 1912, 6 years after Old Pinawa was completed.

📷 2:

@ Pinawa, Manitoba