Ukrainian Pioneer Mass Grave Site
Patterson Lake, SE 22-19-23W,
R.M. of Rossburn
6 miles north of Oakburn

Designation Date: April 17, 1990
Designation Authority: The R.M. of Rossburn
Present Owner: The R.M. of Rossburn

The first group of Ukrainians to settle in the south Riding Mountain region arrived in May of 1899. When a virulent strain of scarlet fever and measles broke out among the immigrants, the settlers had to be quarantined near Patterson Lake, where they had made camp to await the completion of the surveying of their homesteads. A late spring storm struck the group and without adequate food and shelter virtually the entire group took ill. Over the course of two weeks, forty-two children and three women died, and were buried in a shallow mass grave near the camp.

The unfortunate settler who was allotted the homestead upon which this tragedy occurred could not bear the sight of the numerous tiny wooden crosses and within a few years moved to Saskatchewan. The new owner was not aware of the site and for a time its location became lost. In 1915 the site was fenced off and simple birch cross erected. The location was more formally marked by a small concrete monument erected in 1941 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Ukrainian settlement in Canada. In 1990 the site was designated by the R.M. of Rossburn and a large monument was commissioned for the site.