Blumenort is a village of about 1,000 people, in the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 province of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Hanover

Hanover, Manitoba

Hanover is a rural municipality in southeastern Manitoba, Canada. It is located southeast of Winnipeg. It is located in Division No. 2. The city of Steinbach is located in the northeastern part of the municipality, although it is self-governing and is not technically part of the Hanover...

, just north of the city of Steinbach

Steinbach, Manitoba

Steinbach is a city of approx. 13,500 people in the southeast corner of the province of Manitoba, Canada, a short distance from the capital Winnipeg. Steinbach is the largest community in the Eastman region of Manitoba. The city is located in the R.M. of Hanover and bordered to the east by the R.M...

. It was founded in 1874 by Mennonite farmers. Today, its economy is based on agriculture and the service industry.

History

Prior to about 1870, southeastern Manitoba, including the Blumenort area, were hunting, fishing, and trapping grounds used by the nomadic Ojibway people. In 1871, the government began negotiating to the articles of the Ojibway land claims for this region of Manitoba. By 1874, the First Nations people of southeastern Manitoba had moved onto the Brokenhead and Rousseau River Reserves. By this time, the government surveyed the land and readied it for expansion by European settlers. The first non-nomadic settlers in Blumenort were Mennonite farmers from South Russia who arrived in the summer of 1874. By 1875, Blumenort consisted of 24 families.

In 1910, the village of Blumenort was dismantled as the farmers disbursed to move onto the land they farmed. Barns and houses were relocated and within a few years little evidence of the former village remained, the village street serving as a driveway for two farming families.

In 1932, the farmers of the Blumenort area decided to build a cheese factory on a ridge, about a mile from the site of the former village. The cheese factory brought further development. By 1940, there were 16 families and six businesses located along or near the mile road now called Blumenort's Centre Avenue.

Blumenort has continued to expand, growing to 924 people in 2006. It now contains a small mall, apartment buildings, and is home of the Canadian Home Trends magazine.