During the first half of the twentieth century, Winnipeg Beach proudly marketed itself as the Coney Island of the West. Located just north of Manitoba’s bustling capital, it drew 40,000 visitors a day and served as an important intersection between classes, ethnic communities, and perhaps most importantly, between genders. In Winnipeg Beach, Dale Barbour takes us into the heart of this turn-of-the-century resort area and introduces us to some of the people who worked, played and lived in the resort. Through photographs, interviews, and newspaper clippings he presents a lively history of this resort area and its surprising role in the evolution of local courtship and dating practices, from the commoditization of the courting experience by the Canadian Pacific Railway's “Moonlight Specials,” through the development of an elaborate amusement area that encouraged public dating, and to its eventual demise amid the moral panic over sexual behaviour during the 1950s and ‘60s.

The movement of people, goods, capital and information is a central aspect of living in the inter-connected, globalised late-modern world. Although this broader view of mobility is recognized, this book focuses mainly on migration or the movement of people. It examines multiple dwelling as a societal response to the major influences of increased mobility and amenity tourism. The book also considers the modern-day meaning of multiple dwelling, how it affects personal identity and the meaning of 'home' and its impacts on host communities and landscapes.

At the beginning of the last century, no city on the continent was growing faster or was more aggressive than Winnipeg. No year in the city’s history epitomized this energy more that 1912, when Winnipeg was on the crest of a period of unprecedented prosperity. In just forty years, it had grown from a village on the banks of the Red River to become the third largest city in Canada. In the previous decade alone, its population had tripled to nearly 170,000 and it now dominated the economy and society of western Canada. As Canada’s most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse centre, with most of its population under the age of forty, it was also the country’s liveliest city, full of bustle and optimism. In Winnipeg 1912 Jim Blanchard guides readers on a tour through this golden year when, as the Chicago Tribune proclaimed, “all roads lead to Winnipeg.” Beginning early New Year’s Day, as the city’s high society rang in 1912 at the Royal Alexandra Hotel, he visits the public and private side of the “Chicago of the North.” He looks into the opulent mansions of the city’s new elite and into its political backrooms, as well as into the crowded homes of Winnipeg’s immigrant North End. From the excited crowds at the summer Exhibition to the turbulent floor of the Grain Exchange, Blanchard gives us a vivid picture of daily life in this fast-paced city of new millionaires and newly arrived immigrants. Richly illustrated with more than seventy period photographs, Winnipeg 1912 captures a time and place that left a lasting impression on Canadian history and culture.

People remembered the boardwalk, concessions, the Moonlight Inn, picnics, the carousel, the dancing pavilion, Daddy Trains, beach romances, Hot Lips ginger beer, bands, Morse code, ice boxes, honey pot toilets, red boards, the wye, fishflies, bittersweet vine, the Snowshoe Special, and a bygone era when passengers felt part of one big family.From the deep, dank bowels of a century-old railway station, a roll of unused tickets surfaced for Canadian National Railway´s Victoria Beach Subdivision line. Sixty years after train service to the east shores of Lake Winnipeg ceased, a writer embarked on a journey of discovery. Creepy crawls through cemeteries, walks on wooden trestles, and strolls through Manitoba´s cottage country revealed a transplanted station, a time capsule, and the design plans for the beloved Grand Beach carouse