# Beausejour (Manitoba)

Beausejour is a town of about 3,100 people (2011) in eastern Manitoba. Beausejour's primary attraction is a pioneer village open-air museum. As the town is 60 km (40 mi) from Winnipeg, it makes a good day trip from the city.

## Understand

Beausejour was founded in 1874 and incorporated as a village in 1908. The 1906 Manitoba Glass Works, which employed hundreds of workers in its heyday, left the community in 1913.
As part of the Cold War-era Pinetree Line, a radar station was built for the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1952 and turned over to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1961; it closed in 1986. The site is now a provincial jail.

## Get in

Beausejour is reachable by provincial highways PTH 44 and PTH 12, which run concurrently north of town.
PTH 44 was part of an old alignment of Highway 1, bypassed in 1958 as part of the Trans-Canada Highway project. It runs from Lockport (near Winnipeg) east through Beausejour, rejoining the Trans-Canada mainline at Whiteshell Provincial Park near the Ontario border.
PTH 12 runs south to the Minnesota border. The so-called "MOM's Way" series of highways (Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota) provides a secondary route (Manitoba PTH 12, Minnesota 313, Minnesota 11, Ontario 11) to bypass the Trans-Canada mainline between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.

## See

* 50.0632-96.5061 Pioneer Village Museum, Park Avenue and 7th St, ☏ +1 204-268-5535. Jul-Aug: daily 9AM-5PM. An open-air living history museum, established 1967, includes a log house, the Sebright schoolhouse, community hall, Canadian Pacific Railway station, store, blacksmith shop, and a Ukrainian Church with a bell tower. Heritage Day festivities in mid-August. $5.00, age 12 and under free. (updated Dec 2022)
* Manitoba Glass Company Site, Cemetery Road West. The site of the first glass container factory in Western Canada, which used silica sands to produce bottles for breweries and soft drink companies in Winnipeg. The company expanded production to include jars, and medicine and ink bottles, employing 350 workers at its peak. Unable to compete with eastern Canadian manufacturers, which had fully automatic machinery and greater access to capital, the factory closed seven years later. All that remains is an archaeological site and the abandoned building foundations.
* Beausejour Daylily Gardens, ☏ +1 204-268-3950. A two-acre park at the north entrance to Beausejour where an AHS and CHS display garden (established 2002) showcases 600 daylily cultivars, thousands of iris, peonies, lilies, ornamental shrubs and trees.

## Eat

* Le Beau Café and Fudgerie, 30A Third Street S, ☏ +1 204-268-4866. (updated May 2017)
* Lee's Village Restaurant, 627 Park Ave, ☏ +1 204-268-1636. Tu-Sa 11AM–8:30PM, Su noon-8PM. Chinese. (updated Jun 2018)
* Big Fellas, 705 Park Avenue, ☏ +1 204-268-1414. Su-Th 8:30AM-7PM, F Sa 8:30AM-8PM. (updated Jun 2018)

## Drink

* Beausejour Hotel, 610 Park Ave, ☏ +1 204-268-2495. Noon-7PM. BJ's Bar, Chinese restaurant.

## Sleep

* Howland Hotel, 75 2nd Street South, ☏ +1 204-268-9994.
* Superior Inn & Conference Centre, 725 Park Ave, ☏ +1 204-268-9050. Wi-Fi $78.
* Beausejour Motel, 930 Park Ave, ☏ +1 204-268-1955 (office), +1 204-408-0123 (mobile). Check-in: 3PM, check-out: 11AM. $75/night, extra $10 for pets.
* Glass Lake Bed & Breakfast, 27 Fairway Drive S, ☏ +1 204-268-3199. Non-smoking, Wi-Fi, A/C. (updated May 2017)