8) River Hills

River Hills

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The River Hills settlement started as a crossroads for the earliest settlers, dating back to the 1900. One of the early settlers, Mr. Fred Zink Sr., built a sawmill one mile north of the cross roads, on the Bog River where it joins the Whitemouth River. The timber was very large; two oxen were needed to pull a single log. Lumber from this, and other later sawmills enabled the local farmers to build their houses and large barns. In 1914, Mr. Zink built a flour mill on his farm, south of the River Hills bridge, on the east bank of the river. It was operated by a large steam engine powered by two boilers. The mill stone still sits in the field at the site. The mill drew customers from as far away as Elma and Hadashville; some people had to wait two weeks to have their wheat ground into flour, camping on Zink's yard. A larger mill was built near the Provincial Road 408 bridge, south of Oldenburg, which also proved to be much too small. In 1918, a larger flour mill was built in Whitemouth, powered by steam. It was sold to the Kardesh family in 1932, subsequently burning down in 1935. The Whitemouth Museum has that mill stone on display. 

The first store north of Whitemouth was built on the south west corner of the crossroads by Albert Ataeh in 1920. It passed through several owners until George Grubert bought it. Grubert had a larger store moved with a team of horses to the site beside this marker post in 1931. During this time (the great depression years), the evolving settlement became known as Grubert's Corner. Grubert had a Chrysler agency through Breen Motors in Winnipeg, and a CCM bicycle dealership. The town prospered during and after the construction of the Seven Sisters Falls powerhouse and dam. All traffic coming into the Seven Sisters and Whiteshell had to enter via the Brookfield Road and Grubert's Corner. In the late 1940s and 1950s there was Della's Cafe, owned by Della Bonikowski, and a B-A garage (Benny's Garage). Later the restaurant became the Riverside Cafe, operated by Leonard Lipps. There was an International Harvester dealership, garage and body shop owned by Jack Rempel where the original store was located. At the crest of the hill, coming off the Whitemouth River bridge, on the south side was a store owned by Lou Wittenberg, with a large lumber yard. He kept bees in his basement. On the same yard was a garage owned by Norman Zink, a beauty parlor owned by his wife, Ruth. There was also a TV radio electronics shop owned by Irvin Grabke. Until 1948, Ed Moroz, the store owner, brought mail from Seven Sisters. In 1948, a post office was opened in town; the postmaster was Lilly Rempel. A referendum was held to choose a name for the post office, as Grubert's Corner didn't seem appropriate. After much discussion, the name River Hills was chosen. 

Hydro service came to town in 1943 and telephone in 1952.

Dairy Farming in the Whitemouth River Valley

Back in 1920’s the Whitemouth River Valley had the highest number of dairy cows per acre of all of Canada. Other regions of the province where dairy production was sizable included the Brandon and Dauphin areas, where the milk could be sold to the nearby urban population. Two areas in the province, not close to urban centres, but where dairy farms were created, were the Pembina Hills and the Whitemouth Valley. Both these regions had the soils and water conditions for good pastures, but not for grain production. They lacked proximity to a nearby market, but the development of railways made this less of a problem. Dairy farming in these Revised August 3, 2021 8 regions was more determined by another factor: knowledge of dairy farming. New immigrants brought this from their former homes. The Whitemouth Rive Valley area today has twelve bulk milk producers. This is not unusual since the land is well suited for forage crops. But the fact that a dairy industry developed in the region early in the 20th century is surprising. Its existence can be explained by three factors. First, many of the early settlers in the area were Danes, Finns, or Germans who emigrated from Russia or Poland, many bringing with them some knowledge of dairying. The second factor was that Whitemouth was located along the mainline CPR, and represented the last agricultural area before the Canadian Shield enveloped Western Ontario. Much of the milk, butter and cream produced in the Whitemouth area was shipped eastward, to places like Kenora and Dryden. It was used to supply the lumber camps in the forests of southeastern Manitoba and Ontario. Thirdly, in the first quarter of the century, large construction projects for hydroelectric power and railroads added to the demand for the dairy products of Whitemouth. Municipality. Life at the edge of the Canadian Shield was hard and none of the early pioneers were able to concentrate on farming alone. All male family members had to seek employment in the construction, railway, or lumber camps at some point. Once the trees had been cleared and the muskeg burned, dairy products prepared by their wives became a constant source of income. Several families concentrated on dairying after the pioneer period. With cheap lumber readily available, farmers could construct large barns, many of which still dot the landscape. Bill Altstadt ran a dairy farm for over thirty years, delivering milk to local restaurants and residents for five cents a quart (5.5 cents per litre) in the 1930s.159 Sid Meltzer started a service hauling farmers' cream to Beausejour.160 Emil Merke started a dairy farm in 1947 with 15 cows, shipping his milk to the Safeway Lucerne plant in Winnipeg.161 The Schultz family had a dairy farm near Seven Sisters, delivering milk and cream to the people living in the townsite.162 Jake Stark started a dairy farm in 1965, shipping his milk to Grunthal, and arranging for 15 neighbors to ship their milk there jointly by transfer. Henry Steiner took over his father's farm in 1925 and changed it to a dairy operation. He shipped his cream to Kenora by CPR.163 Most local families however, milked about eight cows, and shipped the cream. (Source: Microsoft Word - MHC Dairy Industry in Mb (gov.mb.ca). Since then, technologies have continued to grow in the dairy industry. In 2006 the first milk robots in Manitoba were installed in Whitemouth

Additional Details

Civic Number: 62 115 Homestead Road  l   Amenities on Site: Dock; Porta Potty during summer months; River Access.  l  Building on Site: No