- Source: Moose Lake, Manitoba
- Source: Moose Lake (Manitoba)
Moose Lake is a small community in Manitoba, Canada. It is located on the eastern edge of the Saskatchewan River Delta on the western shore of South Moose Lake about 74 km southeast of The Pas. Adjacent to the non-treaty community is a First Nations reserve, home to the Mosakahiken Cree Nation.
History
The community of Moose Lake Manitoba, with the help of Thomas Henry Peacock Lamb (also known as THP Lamb or Ten Horse-Power Lamb), an Englishman from Yorkshire, built a trading post on the western shore of Moose Lake called Lamb's Store. In 1900, THP build a trading post on the west shore of Moose Lake. The trading post was officially called Lamb's Store but most people referred to it as "The Post" and predated the current community of Moose Lake by several years.
THP's son Tom Lamb (who later started Lamb Air), a Cattle Ranch (7-L), a Muskrat Ranch, commercial fishing and construction bought The Post from his father and operated it for years. Eventually, Tom's son-in-law Jock McAree and daughter Carol (Lamb) bought The Post from Tom Lamb. Jock ran the store for several years with the assistance of his wife and children. Later his son Greg McAree took over, they added a video games room and expanded with a laundromat. The North West Company eventually bought The Post from Jock and Carol and is operating today.
THP's daughter, Billie Lamb Allan, wrote a memoir of her family's life at Moose Lake at the beginning of the 20th century. The book "Dew Upon the Grass" was published in 1963. The title came from a favorite quotation of her father from the King James version of the bible: "The King's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as dew upon the grass." "Dew Upon the Grass" chronicled the lives of Thomas Henry Peacock Lamb and Caroline Alice Marks Lamb as they raised eleven children in northern Manitoba.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Moose Lake had a population of 135 living in 30 of its 35 total private dwellings, a change of -32.5% from its 2016 population of 200. With a land area of 9.75 km2 (3.76 sq mi), it had a population density of 13.8/km2 (35.9/sq mi) in 2021.
Access
Moose Lake is accessed from The Pas (which is 103 km by road) by going north on PTH 10, east on PR 287 then south (from Clearwater Lake) on PR 384.
The town has an airport, Moose Lake Airport, known by the IATA code YAD.
References
Moose Lake is a lake located near the Saskatchewan River Delta in Manitoba, Canada. It is separated into two irregularly shaped lobes, North Moose Lake and South Moose Lake, by the Moose Lake Narrows Control Structure, which was built in 1964. South Moose Lake drains south into Cedar Lake via Moose Creek; these two lakes form the reservoir of the Grand Rapids Generating Station, and the sluice gates at Moose Lake Narrows helps regulate their water levels. The lake as a whole lies at an elevation of 255 metres (837 ft) and covers 1,367 square kilometres (528 sq mi). The community of Moose Lake is on the south shore of the lake.
Human activity
A portage between the eastern end of South Moose Lake and the source of the Minago River was used by fur traders to travel between the Saskatchewan and Nelson Rivers. Most if not all of the semi-nomadic Cree who originally frequented the area around Moose Lake died in a smallpox epidemic during the winter of 1781–1782. The area was subsequently settled by Swampy Cree migrating from the east.
Today, logging, fishing, and trapping are practiced in the Moose Lake area. Tom Lamb operated a cattle ranch at Moose Lake from 1953 to 1964, when flooding of the area by the Grand Rapids hydroelectric project forced its closure. The building of the Grand Rapids Dam caused the inundation of 66% of the territory held by the Moose Lake Cree, with correspondingly and predictably disastrous consequences for the community: previously important economic activities such as moose hunting were eliminated, and substance abuse among children, crime, and alcoholism had become rampant by the late 1970s. A settlement for damages caused by the Grand Rapids project was signed by the Mosakahiken Cree Nation and the province of Manitoba in 2008.
See also
List of lakes of Manitoba