Sifton, Manitoba

"For the Rural Municipality of Sifton found in the Virden, Manitoba area, visit Sifton (Oak Lake), Manitoba."Sifton is a small town located in the Canadian province of Manitoba approximately 20km north of Dauphin in the Parkland area. Large influxes of Ukrainians settled this region inthe mid 1890s, part of a mass immigration undertakenby the federal government. Sifton is named afterMinister of the Interior Clifford Sifton who viewed farmersfrom Eastern Europe as ideal for settling and openingthe Canadian West. About 250 families both in town and in the surroundingcountryside today call Sifton, Manitoba theirhome.

History

A spinning wheel mounted on acairn in town is the only visiblereminder today that Sifton is alsothe birthplace of Canada’s iconicfashion item of the ’50s, the MaryMaxim sweater.

Sifton was once a hub of woolenmilling in Manitoba. Local residentsstill speak of the village blacksmithin the early 1930s, going broke tryingto shoe horses for a living, whostarted manufacturing spinningwheels instead. It was a stroke ofbusiness genius and it sparked amajor industry for Sifton, even duringthe Depression. It lead to theconstruction of Spin-Well Mfg. Co.here and its eventual expansion intoproducing woollen products,including heavy yarn for sweatersand socks. The blacksmith, JohnWeselowski, eventually partneredwith Willard McPhedrain, a communitypromoter and CN agent atthe time, who had the idea of creatingknitting patterns with Canadiansymbols. It was McPhedrain whofounded the Mary Maxim Co.,bestowing on his company a namederived from the shortened versionof a domestic in his household: alocal girl named Mary Maximchuk.

Sifton was, during those years,also a centre of other industry,including flour milling. It had severalmills, plus elevators, numerousstores, cafés, a lumberyard.

But the town’s fortunes began toreverse in the late 1950s. MaryMaxim Co. eventually left Sifton,and relocated to Paris, Ontario. Oneby one the town’s flour mills disappeared.A terrible fire in 1949destroyed several businesses onMain Street. Railways were abandoned.Farms got larger and peoplemore mobile. Children from Sifton’slarge families left for education andfortune elsewhere, frequentlyDauphin, which became the majoreconomic centre of the Parklands.

Geography

*Area: 768.27 km² (296.65 mi²)
*Location: Southwest Manitoba
*Area Code: +1-204

External links

* [http://www.becquet.com/director/maps/Manitoba/Sifton.htm= Map of Sifton]
* [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/profil01/CP01/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=4606015&Geo2=PR&Code2=46&Data=Count&SearchText=Deleau&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom= RM of Sifton Community Profile]

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