Manitoba Municipal Heritage Site No. 40

Sourisford Park
SE 22-2-27W,
Coulter area

Sourisford Park
Designation Date: February 16, 1990
Designation Authority: Arthur (R.M.)
Present Owner: Arthur (R.M.)

Sourisford Park, also known as Coulter Park for Francis Coulter, the original homesteader of the site who donated the land to the municipality in 1928, is the oldest regularly used recreation site in rural Manitoba. On July 1, 1882, three years after settlement began in the Sourisford district, residents gathered for a Dominion Day picnic at this location, which also was an important stopping point near the Boundary Commission Trail. Since then, the park, expanded through an additional donation of land by Norman Gould, has continuously hosted an annual celebration and has become a repository for some of the area’s built heritage. It also is part of a network of historic sites, known as the Boundary Trail Heritage Region, near the international border in southern Manitoba. It was at this site that surveyors with the British North American Boundary Commission camped in 1873, followed the next year by members of the North West Mounted Police on their arduous trek into the western frontier.