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New Iceland
New Iceland (Icelandic: Nýja Ísland ⓘ) is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba founded by Icelandic settlers in 1875.
The community of Gimli, which is home to the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland, is seen as the core of New Iceland. Other rural areas of Manitoba settled by Icelanders include Lundar (on Lake Manitoba); Hecla-Grindstone Provincial Park (on Lake Winnipeg); Glenboro, in the southwestern region of the province; Selkirk, north of Winnipeg; and Morden to the south.
Between 1870 and 1915, some 20,000 Icelanders left their homeland—roughly a quarter of the population of Iceland—due to harsh environmental and economic conditions in the country, including the eruption of Mount Askja.
From 1863 to 1873, a small but growing emigration movement developed. Initially, Brazil was favoured as a likely destination, with over 40 Icelanders emigrating to that country, and many more prepared to go before transportation difficulties blocked the movement. Attention then turned to North America.
In May 1870, four young Icelanders moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, inspired by enthusiastic letters from a Danish store clerk. Letters home from the four men encouraged many others to go the same way and try life in the New World. Soon, six people followed to North America in 1871 and twenty-two in 1872. Among them was Sigtryggur Jonasson, a young government official who became the first Icelander to arrive in Canada.
Around this time, in the 1870s, the federal Government of Canada began a series of reserve schemes to establish populations of European ethnic minorities—Mennonites, Doukhobors, and Icelanders—both in Manitoba and what was then the North-West Territories.
A group of 115 Icelandic settlers joined Jonasson in Canada the following year, taking up land in the Rosseau district of Ontario. In 1874 a second and larger group of 365 Icelanders arrived to homestead in Kinmount, Ontario. Suitable land for a large Icelandic colony in Ontario's Free Grant area was limited, and in the spring of 1875, the newcomers' search for a colony site resumed. Many of the Kinmount group were attracted to Nova Scotia, while those who remained were persuaded by a Scottish missionary, John Taylor, to seek land in Manitoba or the North West Territories.
Three emissaries, Taylor, Sigtryggur Jonasson, and Einar Jonasson, were elected to search for the new colony site in the west. The delegation was joined by several Icelandic settlers from Wisconsin and arrived at the frontier town of Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 20 July 1875. The young province had suffered a grasshopper plague that summer, but the Icelandic delegation was impressed with land they inspected immediately north of Manitoba's boundaries.
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New Iceland AI simulator
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New Iceland
New Iceland (Icelandic: Nýja Ísland ⓘ) is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba founded by Icelandic settlers in 1875.
The community of Gimli, which is home to the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland, is seen as the core of New Iceland. Other rural areas of Manitoba settled by Icelanders include Lundar (on Lake Manitoba); Hecla-Grindstone Provincial Park (on Lake Winnipeg); Glenboro, in the southwestern region of the province; Selkirk, north of Winnipeg; and Morden to the south.
Between 1870 and 1915, some 20,000 Icelanders left their homeland—roughly a quarter of the population of Iceland—due to harsh environmental and economic conditions in the country, including the eruption of Mount Askja.
From 1863 to 1873, a small but growing emigration movement developed. Initially, Brazil was favoured as a likely destination, with over 40 Icelanders emigrating to that country, and many more prepared to go before transportation difficulties blocked the movement. Attention then turned to North America.
In May 1870, four young Icelanders moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, inspired by enthusiastic letters from a Danish store clerk. Letters home from the four men encouraged many others to go the same way and try life in the New World. Soon, six people followed to North America in 1871 and twenty-two in 1872. Among them was Sigtryggur Jonasson, a young government official who became the first Icelander to arrive in Canada.
Around this time, in the 1870s, the federal Government of Canada began a series of reserve schemes to establish populations of European ethnic minorities—Mennonites, Doukhobors, and Icelanders—both in Manitoba and what was then the North-West Territories.
A group of 115 Icelandic settlers joined Jonasson in Canada the following year, taking up land in the Rosseau district of Ontario. In 1874 a second and larger group of 365 Icelanders arrived to homestead in Kinmount, Ontario. Suitable land for a large Icelandic colony in Ontario's Free Grant area was limited, and in the spring of 1875, the newcomers' search for a colony site resumed. Many of the Kinmount group were attracted to Nova Scotia, while those who remained were persuaded by a Scottish missionary, John Taylor, to seek land in Manitoba or the North West Territories.
Three emissaries, Taylor, Sigtryggur Jonasson, and Einar Jonasson, were elected to search for the new colony site in the west. The delegation was joined by several Icelandic settlers from Wisconsin and arrived at the frontier town of Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 20 July 1875. The young province had suffered a grasshopper plague that summer, but the Icelandic delegation was impressed with land they inspected immediately north of Manitoba's boundaries.