Deloraine is an unincorporated urban community in the Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester within the Canadian province of Manitoba that held town status prior to January 1, 2015. It is situated near the Turtle Mountains in the southwestern corner of the province. Located in the Westman Region, the community is south of Brandon. Deloraine originally incorporated as a village in 1904 and then as a town in 1907. Its town status was relinquished in 2015 when it amalgamated with the Rural Municipality of Winchester.
Deloraine is named after a village in Roxburghshire, Scotland.
History
The area of Deloraine was originally home to the Assiniboine and the later the Hunkpapa, whose lives were centred around the plains bison herds. A town site was established in 1883 along the Boundary Commission Trail and a post office was built in the general store by postmaster James Cavers, which he named Deloraine after the district in Scotland from where he emigrated from, and so the town would get its name.
The federal government's efforts to settle the area led many Belgian settlers to arrive in 1888 and in even greater numbers in 1892.
Geography
Deloraine is located on the western shore of Whitewater Lake a brackish lake located in the endorheic basin that drastically fluctuates its water levels based on precipitation cycles. Just south of the community lie the Turtle Mountains, a plateau that rises above the surrounding countryside. The Manitoba side of the plateau is protected by a provincial park, Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, which is approximately in size.
Climate
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Deloraine had a population of 962 living in 441 of its 490 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 978. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The reservoir and the pipe connection to the town was completed in 1963 when the community had a reliable source of potable water.