How Gull Lake Built a Town with a Well, 200 Trees, and a Lucky Census: 1910
- Mar 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 17
How Gull Lake Built a Town with a Well, 200 Trees, and a Lucky Census: 1910
If you could walk down Conrad Street in 1910, you wouldn’t see the sidewalks or hydrants we know today. You’d see a young prairie settlement still finding its footing — muddy streets, scattered buildings, and a council learning, meeting by meeting, how to turn a cluster of shacks into a community.
But 1910 was the year something shifted.
It was the year Gull Lake began to act like a town long before it officially became one
A Council in Transition
The year opened with a quiet change at the council table.
A.H. Thomas was gone, replaced by Charles Morrison, the local druggist. No record survives of an election—the minutes simply move forward, as if urgent village matters overshadowed paperwork. And they did.
The Well That Held a Village Together
Between the December and January meetings, Wm. Eckerman finished digging the village well.
Its exact location wasn’t recorded, but old-timers remembered it near the centre of what is now Conrad Street, between the old Ranch House (then the Esmond Hotel) and the present RM office.
The supply wasn’t enough.
At their first meeting of 1910, council asked Eckerman to deepen the well, and he agreed. Whatever he found must have been sufficient, because households in that part of the village relied on it for years.
When the well was eventually filled in, it became a kind of time capsule.
Local memory says tools and implements from the old Cattle, Coal, and Colonization Company were dropped into it—a quiet burial for relics of an earlier era.
A Village That Wanted to Look Like a Town
Even in those rough early years, Gull Lake cared about appearances.
In February, the council purchased 200 trees and shrubs from Link Allen—carpenter, hunter, and one of the district’s finest marksmen. Some of those Manitoba Maples reportedly stood for decades around the school unit office.
Council also ordered a woven wire fence for the cemetery, with cedar posts a rod apart and proper gates. It was a small gesture, but it showed something important: the village wanted dignity, even in its resting places.
Order, Law, and the First Constable
By March, the council named C.H. Chaston as overseer for the year.
But what the village really needed was someone to keep order.
Applications for constable came in from five men—McCune, Walsh, Baxter, Courtney, and Jones. The job went to O. Walsh, a man with a colourful past. He had once been a law officer in a tough central U.S. state and was reputed to have been “a bit of a gun slick.”
His salary: $50 a month.
The secretary’s salary was raised to $120 a year, reflecting the growing administrative load.
Ink on Paper: The First Printing Press
May brought the first recorded payment to a local printer:
$9.25 to Mr. Spackman.
This likely tied to the early days of the Advertiser—later the Advance—which had begun around 1909.
For the first time, Gull Lake had a printed voice.
Fire: The Fear That Drove a Major Project
Every prairie settlement feared fire, and in June 1910, Gull Lake acted.
Council passed a bylaw to raise $5,000 by debenture to build:
• a fire hall
• a cistern
• an engine and pump
• hose and equipment
By September, they had an agreement with Watrous Engine Works for the equipment.
The project moved quickly:
Bert Jacobs excavated the cistern ($210).
P.J. Timms & A. Turk built the concrete tank and dome ($1,065).
A. Aubin won the contract to build the fire hall ($575).
E.E. Williams sold the village the lots for the site ($500).
By year’s end, the fire hall and contents were insured for $2,000.
This was one of Gull Lake’s first true public buildings — a sign that the village was preparing for the future.
Sidewalks and the Push Toward Town Status
The village borrowed $1,000 to lay plank sidewalks.
They appeared along the blocks that formed the early commercial and residential core:
• Block 2
• The north, west, and south sides of Block 3
• The west side of Block 65
• The south half of the east side of Block 62
• A plank walk north of the CPR tracks
It was the first attempt to tame the mud and make the village more walkable.
Meanwhile, the Board of Trade pressed council to seek town incorporation.
A special meeting on May 10 appointed Floyd Imhoff to take a census.
A CPR work train happened to be in town with about 200 workers, all counted as residents.
The population reached around 1,200—enough to qualify for town status.
And yes, the liquor licence incentive was real. An incorporated town could issue one liquor vendor licence, and a prominent citizen was eager to open a store.
The census cleared the way.
A Village on the Edge of Becoming a Town
By October, council was ready to apply for incorporation.
The Conrad well had reached about 120 feet and was producing enough water to fill the new cistern.
Frank Busse was reappointed auditor. Mr. Ferguson was named returning officer for the 1911 council election.
The year closed with a village that had grown in confidence—a place with sidewalks, a fire hall, a constable, a printing press, and a population ready to call itself a town.
A Different Ending—One True to the Story
1910 wasn’t a year of headlines.
It was a year of groundwork—of wells deepened, trees planted, bylaws drafted, and decisions made by people who believed this place could be more than a stop on the line.
They didn’t know what Gull Lake would become.
They only knew it was worth building.
And that quiet conviction—carried in meeting minutes, tenders, and handwritten motions—is the reason the town that stands here today has roots deep enough to last.
Gull Lake Events
📖 Source: Gull Lake Memories: A History of the Town of Gull Lake
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