Swan River Manitoba

There are only a few places in the world that pull at the strings of my heart. As unlikely as it is, the Swan River Valley of Manitoba is one of these places.The northern-most agricultural settlement in Manitoba, it is on the southern edge of the boreal forest, with a parkland landscape of beautiful fields of canola, wheat, and flax (less today) interspersed with ash and pine forest. Unlike the United States Great Plains, the ethnic diversity includes Russian and Ukrainian settlements.

The town of Swan River itself has around 4000 people with an additional 2000 scattered through the adjacent rural areas. Locals often have multiple sources of income to survive. A plumber might also be a long-haul truck driver and may also need you to be home to do a plumbing job. The person hiring the work is needed as the second employee. And, of course, every such encounter is also a social encounter.

I've always been intrigued with places that are on the edge of settlement, such as Swan, but other elements add to my attachment.

I would have never even heard of Swan River, nor visited not once, but three times, if it hadn't been for a college friend to went there to serve a church and ended up marrying a farmer as well. That was more than two decades ago. I recently visited her as part of aiding in an assessment of a rural-based clinical pastoral education (CPE) course she had developed and taught. Several stories and statistics from that visit illustrate the culture of this place: The Swan River area has some of the highest percentage of elderly in the province, greatest diversity (native peoples, metis, etc.), lowest incomes, but greatest satisfaction with life.

What creates a place that has such great challenges, but also high levels of social capacity, and social capital to meet those challenges? This is one of the things that intrigues me. Another way to describe this would be to say that Swan River has a strong internal locus of control. The community does not exhibit fatalism, but rather is pro-active in shaping its community life. The fact that the community embraced the CPE students is an example. Another community might have been suspicious of outsiders. Swan River residents are not.

This strong sense of self was also reflected in another story I heard. Some local churches close during July. A particular pastor was not comfortable with this and wanted to continue to have services. His board kindly told him that they would close. Why? The locals understand that in small communities the work load for running institutions falls on few people. Everyone needs time off. And in addition, it is actually easier to visit other churches when yours is closed--no rumors are then spread about your possible dissatisfaction with your home church.















It is this strong sense of self that is intriguing. But also the landscape is mesmerizing. The Swan River Valley is actually the remnant of an arm of a glacial lake, leaving behind rich soils. You drive into the valley from drier and higher land into a green, broad valley. The sky expands as you come onto the flat plain. The changes colors of the sky and the landscape of parkland and
cropland leave me spellbound.