Water is vital to the growth and success of any city.
In the early 1900s, Winnipeg’s water system was not adequate for what most expected to be an important city on this continent. For decades, “watermen” using ox carts had hauled untreated water from the Red and Assiniboine rivers and delivered it by barrel around Winnipeg. But sewage in the river eventually rendered that supply undrinkable. After the watermen, most of the city’s water came from artesian wells, which produced unreliable and sometimes dangerously polluted drinking water. Typhoid fever outbreaks, aggravated by the poor water, killed thousands of citizens in the early 1900s, and posed a serious problem for Canada’s third largest city.
Not only was water needed for consumption, but there was also a growing demand for a better firefighting supply. In emergencies, the city would tap into the river, but that source would spray as much mud as water.
In 1907, a commission appointed to investigate the best available source of water submitted a report recommending the Winnipeg River, northeast of the city.
But the city was in the process of building a hydroelectric generating station and the world economy was in a recession, so the water supply project was postponed.
In 1912, a renewed search for soft water began and engineers identified Shoal Lake, at the western arm of Lake of the Woods, as the best around. Its elevation was also higher than Winnipeg, which meant gravity could feed the flow down a concrete pipe to a reservoir at the east edge of the city, as well as to the McPhillips Street Reservoir — first built to hold water from the artesian wells.
The engineers' report stated the following:
Shoal Lake, without help from the main Lake of the Woods, can be depended upon to furnish, even in the driest years, a large part, if not all, of the water needed for Winnipeg until the population shall have reached about 850,000; and with the help of the Lake of the Woods can furnish a practically inexhaustible supply. The water of Shoal Lake is of excellent quality for domestic and manufacturing purposes, being soft, practically free from contamination, without noticeable colour, free from odors, and of an agreaable taste. The best point to take the water is from tbe west end of Indian Bay, an arm of Shoal Lake, as the depth of the water and the configurations of the bottom and shores in the neighborhood are favorable. In order to avoid tbe dark colored water discharged by Falcon River, and to cut off the shallow flow at the extreme westerly end of Indian Bay, a dyke across the end of the bay and a canal leading therefrom to Snowshoe Bay, should be constructed through which to divert the undesirable waters. The best way to get Shoal Lake water to Winnipeg is to bring it down first through a concrete aqueduct 85 miles in length, laid with a continuous down grade to a point about a mile east of Transcona, and then through a 6-foot steel pipe to the Red River. A 5-foot cast-iron pipe, in tunnel, is recommended to convey the water under tbe river, and thence a 4-foot cast-iron pipe, laid in the city streets, to the Winnipeg reservoirs at McPhiliips Street. The concrete portion of the aqueduct should be given a capacity of 85,000,000 Imperial gallons per day, but the pipe line portion should be given the smaller sizes above stated, capable of discharging 25,000,000 gallons per day by gravity into McPhiliips Street Reservoirs. It is recommended that the water be taken out of Shoal Lake by gravity rather than by pumping it over the summit in pipe lines.
The reservoir east of the city is now named for Thomas Deacon, a civil engineer, businessman and mayor of Winnipeg in 1913-1914. It was under his guidance that the project pushed ahead, along with the creation of the Greater Winnipeg Water District to supply not only Winnipeg but municipalities around it.
Work on an aqueduct began in 1914, with the building of a railway to the Indian Bay site to deliver materials and crews. Clearing of land, digging of tunnels and laying down the aqueduct began in 1915 and took until the start of 1919.Because the aqueduct was conceived at a time when local politicians and civic boosters believed Winnipeg would become the "Chicago of the North" it was so grand in scope that it is still capable of supplying Winnipeg homes and industries with ample quantities of clean, fresh water. On March 29, 1919, the first flow of water from Shoal Lake arrived at the McPhillips reservoir, and distribution throughout Winnipeg began on April 5.
In order to log a find on this EARTHcache, you must send answers to GG+J through the message system by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
Once approved, you may log a find INCLUDING a picture of yourelf at Ground Zero. Please do not include any of the signage which contains answers.
1. Take an elevation at GZ. According to the sign, gravity brings the water down the aqueduct from the intake at Indian Bay, Shoal Lake (Lake of the Woods). What is the approximate elevation at Lake of the Woods?
2. Water flows in the second branch aqueduct how far below the earth at GZ?
3. The Easterly 80 miles of the aqueduct is what shape? Can you give an opinion on why it is this shape?
4. A team of 5 advisory consulting engineers worked on this project. Five of them are mentioned on the sign. One was deceased at the time the sign was erected. What was that person's name?
Sources:
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/aqueduct.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Winnipeg_Water_District_aqueduct
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-aqueduct-shoal-lake-100-years-1.5152678