Rosenthal

History of the site

This ecological waypoint along the Peace Trail takes its name from a Mennonite settler village which existed on this site from 1874 to 1887.

However, people lived here long before that. Talk to anyone who remembers this area back in the day, and they’ll likely recall Indigenous people living in these woods. An early map of the East Reserve has this area greyed out, as if to indicate it wasn’t part of the East Reserve. It may have belonged to the Métis.

The picture above was perhaps taken in what we today think of as the Rosenthal woods. The photo was published in Historical Sketches of the East Reserve, found in the Ebenfeld chapter that mentions other villages in the Mitchell area. (Ebenfeld was about half a mile east of Rosenthal.)

According to the Historical Atlas of the East Reserve, there were many Mennonite homestead applications filed on this village site in 1874. By 1876, there were at least 26 families living here, making Rosenthal a pretty large village for the early days of the East Reserve (today the RM of Hanover). The village itself was short-lived. By 1887, only two families remained; the rest had all left the stony East Reserve to settle in the fertile West Reserve (today the RMs of Stanley and Rhineland). Apparently there had been a school in Rosenthal… which by 1879 no longer was reporting any students. The Atlas also suggests there’s a cemetery here… somewhere.

One wonders if it was accidentally removed when half the site was excavated in building the Mitchell lagoon.

Transformation

When the RM of Hanover built Mitchell’s lagoon, they used clay from nearby Rosenthal, and the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District website alludes to “the presence of artifacts” found on-site. The digging left a hole, so the SRRWD partnered with the RM to create Rosenthal Nature Park.

What you see here today

Modeled after the Tourond Creek Discovery Centre, Rosenthal is a special place. Visitors can enjoy walking trails through the woods, past a field of wildflowers in summer, birdhouses all year long, and walk out into the middle of the pond where you’ll find benches perfect for observing wildlife.

Dangers include poison ivy and ticks.