Manitoba Municipal Heritage Site No. 57

Macdonald Pioneer Cemetery
NE 34-12-8W,
Macdonald

Macdonald Pioneer Cemetery
Designation Date: February 12, 1991
Designation Authority: Portage la Prairie (R.M.)
Present Owner: Portage la Prairie (R.M.)

The Macdonald Pioneer Cemetery, a tidy, straightforward burial ground established in the late 1880s on a donated site (by the Gillespie family) and still in use, is the only cemetery in the small community of Macdonald and a rare link to the area’s settlers. Since the 1990s the site has been a focus for local heritage conservation, with considerable effort put into restoring the grounds and grave markers and maintaining the cemetery as an attractive place of rest and reflection. This preservation activity is of dual community significance, providing continuity with the past, as well as assuring contemporary residents they can be interred in the place they call home.