St. Malo is a local urban district[3] located in the Rural Municipality of De Salaberry, approximately 70 km south of The Forks, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Most of the community's residents are bilingual francophone of Métis or Québécois heritage.

St. Malo
St. Malo Provincial Park and a number of privately-owned campgrounds are located near the community.
St. Malo Provincial Park and a number of privately-owned campgrounds are located near the community.
Map
CountryCanada
ProvinceManitoba
RMDe Salaberry
Established1877
Government
 • TypeLocal urban district (L.U.D.)
Area
 • Total7.34 km2 (2.83 sq mi)
Elevation
.(St Malo & Bourgeois)[2]
252 m (827 ft)
Population
 (2016[1])
 • Total1,227
 • Density167/km2 (430/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code204

Early history

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Chronology of the early settlement of St. Malo:

  • 1877 — Born in Varennes, Quebec, Louis Malo is the first pioneer to settle in St. Malo.[4][5][6][7][8]
  • 1878 — Opening of the Pembina Branch rail line from St. Boniface to Dominion City through nearby Dufrost station. The new rail route resulted in the phasing-out of the generations-old Crow Wing ox trail through St. Malo; Dufrost began part of St. Malo parish.[9]
  • 1884 — Surveying of the St. Malo Settlement of lots along the Rat River (a tributary of the Red River) from the southern edge of the village of St. Malo to La Rochelle.[4][10]
  • 1892 — Opening of register for the St. Malo parish of the Manitoban archdiocese of St. Boniface.[11][12] St. Malo Post Office established 1 February 1892.[13]
  • 1977 - On July 18, a violent F4 tornado ripped through the community, killing three and destroying several houses. Asphalt was peeled off of highway roads.

Geography

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St. Malo lies in the eastern edge of the remarkably flat Red River flood plain, which was once the lake shore of Lake Agassiz at the transition between southeastern Manitoba's upland woodlands to the east and the flat prairie grasslands to the west.[14][15]

Demographics

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In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, St. Malo had a population of 1,323 living in 492 of its 563 total private dwellings, a change of 7.8% from its 2016 population of 1,227. With a land area of 6.91 km2 (2.67 sq mi), it had a population density of 191.5/km2 (495.9/sq mi) in 2021.[16]

Amenities

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St. Malo is a shopping and services centre for the surrounding rural area; it is also recognized for its tourist attractions and farming.

Popular activities in St. Malo during the winter months include snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, hockey, as well as ice-fishing and car racing on the lake. In February 2008, the Friends of the Park ("Les Amis du Parc") organized its first annual Festival of Friends ("Festival des Amis").

École Saint-Malo School is the community's elementary and middle school and is part of the Red River Valley School Division. The school offers both French Immersion and English programs.

Notable people

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See also

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Friendship communities

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References

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  1. ^ Census Profile, 2016 Census (online), accessed April 7, 2017
  2. ^ Worldwide Elevation Map Finder (online), accessed April 7, 2017
  3. ^ Manitoba LUDR (online), accessed April 24, 2016
  4. ^ a b Ledohowski (pdf 3) 2003, §5.3.15, p. 46
  5. ^ Louis Malo is a descendant of Jean Hayet dit Saint-Malo (~1639 Saint-Malo, Brittany - 1721 Varennes, New France). We can thus suppose that the place-name St. Malo in Manitoba derives from the patronymic evolution which ensues from, on one hand, the surname 'Hayet dit Saint-Malo', whose 1st ancestor to settle in ancient Quebec was a native of Saint-Malo, the port city in Brittany, became the 6th generation descendant Louis Malo, and, on the other hand, the place where this pioneer Louis Malo settled in Manitoba to re-surface, so to speak, by multiple association, as the place-name St. Malo. Brittany's Saint-Malo originally derives for the Welsh medieval monk Malo (or Maclou), who was bishop of Saint-Malo and one of Brittany's seven founding saints.
  6. ^ PRDH (online), accessed April 28, 2017
  7. ^ Malo & edited by Olivier 2015, pp. 11, 13, 15
  8. ^ See Manitoba Land Titles Office abstract for lot 90.
  9. ^ Parks Canada 2008, This first railway line built in Canadian West, officially opened on December 3, 1878, brought prosperity to the region.
  10. ^ Canada. Dept. of the Interior 1890, p. 91
  11. ^ Livre du centenaire de la paroisse Saint-Malo 1994, p. 15
  12. ^ SHSB 1940, p. 29
  13. ^ L&A Canada (online), accessed April 7, 2017
  14. ^ Rivers West (online), Some of the flattest land in the world is located in the Red River Valley.
  15. ^ Ledohowski (pdf 1) 2003, §1.4, p. 4
  16. ^ "Population and dwelling counts: Canada and designated places". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved September 3, 2022.

Bibliography

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49°19′02″N 96°56′56″W / 49.31722°N 96.94889°W / 49.31722; -96.94889