Churchill is gearing up for its part in Manitoba Homecoming 2010 with its own events planned for the Civic Holiday weekend of July 30-Aug. 2 when many of the province’s communities will hold reunion events for former residents and visitors.

The City of Thompson will host its reunion homecoming the same weekend. The province’s 140th official birthday party was in Neepawa on Manitoba Day May 12, after they handily beat out Thompson, La Salle, La Broquerie and Morden in May 2009 in an online voting contest for the honour of being Manitoba’s favourite hometown.

Manitoba joined Confederation as Canada’s fifth province on July 15, 1870. The Manitoba Act, which created the Province of Manitoba, was passed by the Parliament of Canada, and received royal assent on May 12, 1870. The act was proclaimed on July 15, 1870. Manitoba’s official flag, the Red Ensign, bearing the provincial coat of arms, was given royal approval by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in October 1965, and officially dedicated and unfurled for the first time on May 12, 1966. In 1986, May 12 was designated as Manitoba Day.

Maritime Churchill, on the shores of Hudson Bay and 550 kilometres northeast of Thompson, is Manitoba's oldest community.

The first occupants of the rugged sub-arctic environment along the shores of Hudson Bay were pre-Dorset culture aboriginals who came from their ancestral homeland in Alaska about 1500 B.C. In winter, they lived in snow houses with central hearths and during warmer months in skin tents. Their diet varied according to season: seal in the winter, large sea mammals and fish in summer. In the fall they hunted migrating caribou. Archaeologists have discovered small delicate stone tools, which were used for cutting, scraping, piercing and chiselling. By 1000 B.C. the climate had warmed and the tree line shifted to the north.

Chipewyan (Dënes??iné or Dene) Indians came in from the south while the Pre-Dorset people moved northward into what is now Nunavut. The Athapaskan-speaking Sayisi Dene of Tadoule Lake are members of the Fort Churchill Dene Chipewyan Band and part of Canada's tragic colonial history of failed and forced relocation, which included Churchill, Little Duck Lake and North Knife River.

Churchill dates its European origins to Jens Munck, a Danish explorer who led an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage and wintered in the Churchill area in 1619-20. His wintering site, approximately eight kilometres from the mouth of the Churchill River, was chosen by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) to establish a trading post in 1689. The post burned the same year but was re-established in 1717 as Prince of Wales Fort.

In 1730 the HBC authorized the construction of a stone fortification at the mouth of the Churchill River. Eskimo Point, the rocky northern peninsula commanding the entrance to the Churchill River, was selected for its strategic location.

Churchill still has as an airstrip capable of handling the largest commercial and military aircraft in the world. Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Churchill’s large airbase was built in 1942. The station closed in 1980, but the airport and rocket ranges are still in use.
“Calling all Churchillians and wantabees – you do not want to miss this: Churchill is welcoming everyone this summer,” says Louise Lawrie of the 2010 Churchill Homecoming Committee.

  Events kick off with a meet and greet at the Town Centre Complex in Churchill July 30 and will be followed

Saturday by a dinner and social at the Town Centre Complex.

Sunday there will a community barbecue in Hudson Square.

Registration is $100 with the dinner banquet or $50 without dinner for adults. Those less than 18 years of age can have the dinner banquet included for $50 or register without dinner for $25.

You can find a YouTube video for Churchill Homecoming 2010 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkOlYUY86w&feature=player_embedded or check the Churchill Chamber of Commerce website link at: http://www.churchillchamberofcommerce.ca/Welcome.html.

Cheques should be made payable to: 2010 Churchill Homecoming and mailed to: Box 700, Churchill, Man., R0B 0E0. Registration forms can be obtained by e-mailing: polarinn@mts.net