l 930 ABIDI'I'NDN S

It was Alderman Amassa Mellen who opened up Caledonia Avenue in the Mellenville area for small land-holders,
who with their big gardens, could better exist in the difficult days of the Depression.

The fight against the grasshopper infestation continued, with poison being mixed with sawdust in an old churn out
behind the Municipal Hall, then carted off by farmers to spread on their land. At one point, the Province ran out of
poison to make such bait, which was serious as it was necessary to kill the varmints before they could fly.

A silver symbol of hope was the day in 1937 when the first Trans Canada Airlines plane came winging its way over
Portage.

The newly formed Lions Club was looking for a good project and found one in the starting of the School Safety
Patrol plan in 1938. The boys and girls have been proudly saving lives ever since.

It was on the hottest July 12th in history, in 1934, that King William, on his huge white charger, led the visiting
Orange Lodge members from the train stations to their annual picnic on Island Park.

In 1934, born out of the concern of private individuals for the welfare of neglected children, the Children’s Aid
Society of Central Manitoba was formed in Portage. It started out encompassing thirteen municipalities, and later
was enlarged to cover all of central Manitoba north of the Assiniboine.

The Lake of the Woods Milling Company, long a mainstay of the industrial Portage and a large employer, down-
sized its western Canada operations, ceasing milling at Portage in 1838 and moving many employees to Keewatin
and Medicine Hat. A skeleton crew maintained the huge building, situated where our Centennial Arena is now, until
it burned to the ground five years later.

The Boy Scouts dismantled their log cabin out by the river, rebuilding it on Crescent Road East, not far from the
old swimming pool site. Many a boy learned winter survival and cooking skills in that log building, with its big stone
fireplace. ln the summer, they camped at Black’s Lake, where many local citizens also went to swim, it being only
six miles east of town.

Movie star Clark Gable made many a local girl swoon when he came to Portage on the way to doing some duck
shooting at Delta.

The Portage la Prairie Consumers' Co-op continued to expand its services to its members, when it purchased the
Portage Oil Refinery a mile east of town. It operated a distillate skimming plant there, as well as its other supply
facilities.

 

 

 

 

 

1930's

 

 

 

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6

uilding on The Island

   

The beautiful Exhibition B

 

King George and Queen Elizabeth
come to church in Portage in 1939

 

 

Our Story — Portage la Prairie — 39 —