Please do not park on the street. There is parking on the Commons Grounds.
I grew up in this village, and attended the one room school until I was in grade 7, when the rural schools in the area closed and amalgamated into the Altona schools. The school was situated in the yard directly south of this one. The church at the south end of the village, which most of the villagers attended, had at this time already closed and joined up with the church in Altona. We had a very small local grocery/hardware store at the north end of the village, run by a village buisness man. It was also our post office, and everyone in the village had the same post box number. Box # 10. The store owner was also the village chiropractor!!! The store closed when he passed.
The housebarn in the above picture was owned by my mom's aunt, and I spent many Easter or birthday gatherings in that house.
Mennonite origins start with the development of Anabaptist beliefs at the time of the Reformation. Menno Simmons, a Dutch Catholic priest who lived from 1491 to 1561, converted. He became the leader of Dutch and Swiss Anabaptists or Mennonites. Their beliefs, which included refusal to swear allegiance or participate in military activities, created conflicts with government authorities. Persecution and restrictions on their ability to remain pacifist led to several migrations over the years. In the mid-sixteenth century they fled to the Vistula Delta and the city of Danzig in Polish Prussia. In the 1780s Prussian control in the Vistula region renewed state pressure for military service. Many Mennonites accepted an invitation from Catherine II of Russia to settle in Imperial South Russia (Ukraine). The original settlers of Neubergthal left Russia in the 1870s when Tsar Alexander II had voided the charter that granted Russian Mennonites freedom of religion and the right to self-determination, and when the Canadian government was offering free land to encourage settlement of the Canadian prairies. About 7,000 Russian Mennonites settled in southern Manitoba during the 1870s, in two areas where blocks of crown land were reserved exclusively for Mennonite homesteaders.
The terms of the Canadian land grants gave each head of the household 160 acres of land, to which they received full title after three years of residence on the land. The Mennonites who came to Manitoba in the 1870s were used to a communal life in villages, not a life spread out on homesteads. All houses in the village had similar floor plans. “They only brought one plan from Russia.” The house stood closer to the central road of the village, with the barn farther from the road. The two were connected by a breezeway, or 'gank' as it was called in German. This kept the house and barn somewhat seperate. Animals were kept in the yards. Farm fields surrounded the village. The Mennonite (and Icelandic) immigrants were granted “hamlet privilege”, allowing them to settle in village formations rather than on individual homesteads without losing the right to their 160 acres.
Neubergthal Street Village is a living illustration of a Mennonite village on the Canadian Prairies. Its heritage value rests in the distinctive settlement forms resulting from Mennonite traditions of community development and architectural forms that express a belief in an egalitarian, communal and self-sufficient social structure. A group of related families, the children of Johann and Margaretha Klippenstein, founded the village in 1876. They settled on land, which, together with some additional families, they entered as homesteads between 1876 through the 1880s. The street village formation was a good model for settlement because it required close interaction and cooperation among residents. Villagers assisted each other with harvesting and threshing, butchering and building. The church, as the central institution of village life, defined how they made their living, governed themselves, and generally defined their values and behaviour.
At its peak, Neubergthal was a bustling community with a school, church, and various businesses serving the needs of its residents. Today, while the village's population has dwindled, efforts are underway to preserve its heritage and promote tourism in the area.
There are three other housebarns in the village, two of which are still being used. This particular barn was originally built near Steinbach when Mennonites first came to Canada. The barn was disassembled and rebuilt in its present location by the Klippenstein family
In recognition of its cultural significance, Neubergthal Commons was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. This prestigious designation highlights the village's importance as a living example of Mennonite settlement patterns and architectural traditions. Neubergthal is the best-preserved single-street Mennonite village in North America. The village layout and architecture were developed over centuries of Mennonite life in Europe and Russia.
To claim this cache, please send an email with the answers to the following questions.
1. What is the second word on the plaque at ground zero. Exta bonus points, what does it mean?
2. What is the third digit of the number written on the school building?
3. Post a picture of yourself, or your GPS in front of the 'gank'.
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.