The cache will be buried under snow in the winter, but if you find it, it should be easy enough to dig out - it’ll take a shovel hit.
For decades watermen using ox carts hauled untreated water from the Red and Assiniboine rivers and delivered it by barrel around Winnipeg. After the watermen, most of the city’s water came from artesian wells. 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.
In 1907 Professor Charles Slichter was hired by the Public Utilities Commissioner of Manitoba, H.A. Robson, to find a solution. Professor Slichter’s recommendation was to build an aqueduct to Shoal Lake which he described as a fabulous source of water of exceptional softness and purity, in a lake of clean Laurentian granite. The problem was the route to Shoal Lake lay across 137 kilometres of wilderness with no road access. In 1913 Thomas R. Deacon was elected mayor on the basis of his campaign to deliver clean, safe, and abundant water. Shortly after the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) was formed. Construction began in 1915 and water first flowed from Winnipeg taps in 1919.
The 3.9 and 5.6 ft diameter pipe sections found here likely formed part of the City of Winnipeg Branch I Aqueduct connecting the Deacon and McPhillips reservoirs. These pipes were originally installed in 1919. The Shoal Lake Aqueduct itself was poured in place.
This gravel pit, at the Mile 31 (Monominto) GWWD railway siding, was a source of materials during construction and possibly a camp site as well. The Shoal Lake Aqueduct is located about ½ km up the west siding.