Beaconia is located off the junction of road 98 North and Provincial road 500 in the RM of St. Clements.

H. August Larson, otherwise known as “The Little Dane,” arrived in Beaconia some time before 1910.  He was a small man with very short legs.  In summer he always rode an ox, and in winter travelled on the ice with a sail attached to his sleigh.  He used to ride his ox down to Balsam Bay to get his mail.  They say he was quite a comical sight, for as he rode along he would be reading the newspaper.

With the idea of hauling wood to Selkirk, Mr. Larson decided to build a barge.  When the barge was finished he launched it by himself with the aid of a winch and his ox.  To guide his barge at night he built a beacon; it was this beacon that gave Beaconia its name.

Because Mr. Larson was different, there were people who said he was insane.  After numerous complaints were made, the sheriff was forced to take him to the mental hospital in Selkirk.  Upon delivering Mr. Larson to Selkirk, Mr. Anderson, who was the constable at that time, told the sheriff, ‘That man is as sane as you are.”

Mr. Larson was committed to the mental hospital but escaped two or three days later.  The authorities searched for him but he was never found. A few months later, in Nov. 1913, Mr. Anderson received a letter from Mr Larson.  He was living in Minnesota. Another letter followed; “The Little Dane” had gone back to Denmark and was never heard from again.

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