Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Síða 52

42
LE NORD
settled down in Winnipeg itself, whose rapid growth offered
many and varied opportunities of employment. For others, the
city was a half-way house on their way to settlements further
towards the West. The first Icelandic association was founded
in Winnipeg in 1877, and since then this city has been the centre
of most Icelandic associations and other institutions of a national
character. By far the greater part of the Icelandic books and
periodicals published in Canada are printed here, among them
the only two existing Icelandic weeklies in America. From Winni-
peg too, the services of two Icelandic churches are broadcast.
In the pioneering days, however, most Icelandic emigrants
proceeded further West in search of land. The first of these
Western pioneers were settlers from New Iceland, and in the
1880’s they founded several new settlements, where they were
joined by other Icelanders from Winnipeg or directly from Ice-
land. The oldest of these settlements are situated in Argyle,
Manitoba, to the South-West of Winnipeg, which quickly be-
came one of their most flourishing colonies. Somewhat later,
Icelandic emigrants began to settle on the Eastern shore of Lake
Manitoba, where they established two fairly closely settled colo-
nies.
In 1885 and the following years Icelanders began to settle
in Saskatchewan. Remnants of their first settlement here are still
found near Churchbridge, but the main current went further
West, and here was gradually formed the largest present colony
of Icelanders in the Dominion with the exception of that in
Winnipeg. This settlement, which the Icelanders themselves call
Vatnabygðir (the Lake Settlements) stretches from Fishing Lake
to the two Quill Lakes. The nucleus of these settlements is the
town of Wynyard, where there are a number of Icelanders. In
Eastern Saskatchewan there are several thousand Icelanders. The
prosperity to which the settlements in question have attained in
comparatively short time is not only due to favourable economic
conditions, but also, no doubt, to the fact that their settlers for
the most part came from older colonies, where they had acquired
experience of pioneering life and amassed some initial capital.
Still further to the West, in Alberta, there is another fairly
prosperous Icelandic colony. It was founded in 1888 by emi-
grants from North Dakota, who were dissatisfied with conditions
there. It is situated on the Red Deer River, about 80 miles to
the North of Calgary. When the settlers first arrived there, con-