History

For many years, Grand Rapids was a very busy trading centre serving as the gateway to Manitoba's north. Many of the major fur trade routes in the north converged here. In the early days of explorers and fur traders, the Saskatchewan River (one of the longest in Canada, stretching from the Rockies to Central Manitoba) served as a major water-highway, facilitating relatively easy east-west travel. Experts believe that the first white man to travel the river did so in 1690.

York boats and river-steamers carried goods from Fort Garry and Winnipeg as far west as Edmonton and Lethbridge, Alberta. Portaging the 5-kilometres of rapids just west of the town posed great difficulty to transport, and in 1877 the Hudson's Bay Company built a horse drawn tramway to get past the Rapids. The tramway was effectively the first railway constructed in Western Canada.

The construction of the Trans Canada Railway brought an end to Grand Rapids'glory days as a transportation hub. The cheaper freight of railway transport rendered the waterway obsolete, and Grand Rapids fell from its once popular status. Today, the beautiful and rugged landscape of the Grand Rapids area draws hundreds of tourists each year to take in all the area has to offer.