Beausejour, Manitoba

Beausejour is a town of 2,823 inhabitants [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/profiles/community/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=4612056&Geo2=PR&Code2=46&Data=Count&SearchText=Beausejour&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&GeoLevel=&GeoCode=4612056] in the Canadian province of Manitoba located in the Rural Municipality of Brokenhead. It is located 46 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg near the Canadian Shield and the gateway to the Whiteshell Provincial Park.

The town is a commercial centre serving the needs of vacationers headed to cottage country and for the local area needs of farmers. It is the birthplace of former Provincial Premier and Governor General Edward Schreyer.

The town is home to the Canadian Power Toboggan Championships, the Double B Rodeo and the annual Agricultural Fair.

Beausejour's hockey teams are known as the Blades (up to pee-wee) and the Comets (in bantam and midget). Beausejour's new Manitoba Junior Hockey League team is the Beausejour Blades.

Hockey games are played in the [http://www.sungrocentre.com/ Sun Gro Centre] , which also hosts curling, figure skating, and has a walking track.

Beausejour hosted the Manitoba Provincial Finals for the Scott Tournament of Hearts, which was held in the Sun Gro Centre. Beausejour hosted the 2006 Power Smart Manitoba Games. The opening ceremonies were held at the CPTC Racetrack, and the closing ceremonies at the Sun Gro Centre. Other venues were the Edward Schreyer School, Beausejour Early Years School, Gillis School, Springfield Collegiate, Beausejour Lanes, Garson Arena and the Brokenhead River Recreation Complex (hall).Other recreational activities in Beausejour include swimming (SPLASH pool), walking, x-country skiing (Chryplywy Park), and slopitch baseball (four-plex on James Avenue).

Great Woods Park, just on the edge of Beausejour, hosts two festivals each year,the Prairie's Edge Music Festival in June and the Great Woods Music Festival in August. The park was originally named "Hoban's Park" after the Hoban Family which had had their homestead in the area.

A deposit of high-quality sand supported a glass factory near the beginning of the 1900's, the "Manitoba Glass Factory" (Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 41). It was the first glass container factory in Western Canada. Built in 1906 by Joseph Keilbach and his partners, glassblowers from Poland and the United States, aided by local labour, used silica sands to produce bottles for breweries and soft drink companies in Winnipeg, serving the Prairie market. Semi-automatic machines were soon installed to increase production. After it was taken over and enlarged by Winnipeg businessmen between 1909 and 1911, the new company expanded its production to include jars, and medicine and ink bottles. At its peak it employed 350 workers.

The factory could not compete with Eastern Canadian manufacturers who held the exclusive licence for fully automatic machines and operated with much larger capital. As a result, it was purchased in 1913 by a Montreal company which then relocated its Western operations to Redcliff, Alberta, in response to an offer of free natural gas and land. The Beausejour works were closed in 1913-14.

External links

* [http://www.townofbeausejour.com/ Official Town of Beausejour Website]
* [http://www.newbeausejourblades.com/ Beausejour Blades Jr. A Hockey Club]
* [http://www.beausejour-brokenhead-fire.ca/ Beausejour Brokenhead Fire Department]
* [http://beausejour.yia.ca/ Beausejour @ Home]
* [http://beausejour.kicks-ass.org/ Beausejour Underground]
* [http://beausejourcomets.tk/ Beausejour Comets Website]