Minnedosa 4.91

Minnedosa is a town in the southwestern part of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Situated 50 kilometres (32 mi) north of Brandon, Manitoba on the Little Saskatchewan River. The town's name means "flowing water" in the Dakota language. The population of Minnedosa reported in the 2006 Statistics Canada Census was 2,474. The town is located in the Rural Municipality of Minto and bordered to the south by the Rural Municipality of Odanah.HistoryPrior to the arrival of Europeans in the area of Minnedosa, the land was primarily traveled and used by the nomadic Ojibway, Cree, Assiniboine, and Sioux peoples. John Tanner was the grandson of John Tanner who had been raised by a Shawnee. He was an American settler who arrived in the area in 1869. The younger Tanner was the first Métis settler in the area and ran a ferry service across the Little Saskatchewan River. When a bridge was built in 1879, the ferry became obsolete and at the same time, a small town, Tanner's Crossing, was started nearby. John Armitage moved to the area around this time in 1877, and began to build a sawmill and gristmill. He joined together with Tanner to lay out a new town site and eventually Armitage had accumulated 3800acre of property. Tanner named the new town Minnedosa, from the Dakota word mnidúza meaning "flowing water".