Site 2: East Selkirk Immigration Hall

Around the year 1900, thousands of Eastern European (present-day Ukraine, Poland and Russia) immigrants came to Manitoba and were sent to the Immigration Hall at East Selkirk to live until they were able to secure a homestead. Listen to the story of one such Ukrainian family.

East Selkirk Immigration Hall geocache site is located in East Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada at N 50º 08.112´ latitude and W 96º 49.714´ longitude. If you find the geocache and scan the QR code inside of it, it brings you here to learn more. Watch all of our videos on our YouTube Channel. Other heritage content can be found on our Red River North Heritage Youtube channel.

Transcription:

Hello, I am digging a hole.

It’s getting late in the fall, and this might be our only option for a home in the winter.

It’s too late to build our log home, so we’re digging a hole for the winter.

We need some place to live, urgently!

We’ve traveled a long, long way, all the way from Ukraine. I don’t know what day it is.

I only know that winter is coming, and I have heard that winter means death in these parts.

We went on a train, and a boat, and then we walked, and the new got dirty.

And then we walked some more and Mama got tired, and Dad said “We’re going to live right here. Isn’t it lovely?”

It’s only the first day. We came on a train from Nova Scotia. We got off at a place called Immigration Hall.

It was warm!

We were there for two weeks, and then one day we woke up and they told us we had to leave.

We were told to walk with a big group to go to Gimli. We had to take a barge.

Like animals!

When we arrived, we got off the boat and the man pointed. He said, “Your house is that way” and we were sent off to find the plot.

It was so muddy that poor Alexei couldn’t walk in it.

But we made it, and this is our home.