Parkland Facts

By the Numbers

  • 1 – National Park (Manitoba’s first national Park – Riding Mountain National Park)
  • 6 – Provincial Parks (Asessippi, Birch Island, Duck Mountain, Kettle Stones, Manipogo, Rainbow Beach)
  • 60 – Depth, in metres, of East Blue Lake at Duck Mountain Provincial Park
  • 67 – Length, in kilometres, of Lake of the Prairies
  • 260 – Bird species found in the area of Riding Mountain National Park
  • 330 – Approx. length, in kilometers, of the Parkland from north to south.
  • 831.2 – Height, in metres, of Manitoba’s highest point at Baldy Mountain in Duck Mountain Provincial Park
  • 1,218 – Width, in metres, of Shellmouth Dam which created Lake of the Prairies
  • 3,078 – Size, in square kilometres, of Riding Mountain National Park
  • 28,200 – Size, in square kilometres, of Manitoba’s Parkland Region

Did You Know?

Inglis Elevators National Historic Site is the last remaining row of vintage 1920s standard-plan grain elevators in Canada.

The Park Theatre in Wasagaming is the only log cabin cinema built in a Canadian national park, and is the largest all-log theatre in North America. It was completed in 1937 and is still in use today as a cinema showing movies throughout the summer.

Quick! Which Parkland community received its name as the result of a naming contest? If you guessed Wasagaming, you’d be right. The name has its origins in the Anishanabe term, “washagama saageygun”, meaning “clear water lake”.

Loch Ness has Nessie, and Lake Okanagan, BC, has Ogopogo. But did you know that Manitoba can lay claim to its own sea monster? Journey to the shores of Lake Manitoba and you may just be lucky enough to spot Manipogo. A good place to look is from the beach at Manipogo’s namesake park, Manipogo Provincial Park!

Rawhide and Jelly Roll were the names of the two pet beavers kept by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) and his wife, Anahereo, while they lived at Beaver Lake Lodge in Riding Mountain National Park in 1931.

Highway 19, from Highway 10 in Riding Mountain National Park to McCreary, was constructed during the 1930s (the Great Depression years) by relief workers, and by conscientious objectors during World War II. Much of the work was done by hand.

Grizzly bears were once found in the Parkland Region, but were extirpated in the 1800s.

Riding Mountain National Park was first declared a forest reserve in 1895. The park is 3,000 square kilometres in size with bodies of water making up nearly 5% of this area.

Mafeking, located on PTH10 at the northernmost reaches of the Parkland, is named for the city of Mafeking, South Africa. Construction on the railway to this Manitoba community took place at the same time as the Second Boer War (1899) in South Africa. The nearby communities of Baden and Powell probably have similar connections to this battle, as Lt. Gen. Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, successfully defended the South African city during the Siege of Mafeking.

Sugar Island, in Sagemace Bay on Lake Winnipegosis, has a nationally significant number of breeding Great Blue Herons as well as large numbers of Double Crested Cormorants. It is famous as a molting and staging area for diving ducks, especially Redheads and Canvasbacks. Sagemace & Coleman Bay Islands is one of 36 Manitoba sites designated as Important Bird Areas (IBA), a program initiated by BirdLife International in the 1980s and today by Nature Manitoba.