THE "WRECK"
ON THE WEST BEACH
AT GRAND BEACH
_____________________________

     Grand Beach was certainly very different in 1941 than it is now.  It was an exciting and vibrant vacation area.  Truly, they were the Golden Days of Grand Beach.

      In 1941 there was "A WRECK" on the west beach (that's what everyone called it).  Actually, it was the bottom of a large wooden barge that had been separated from a lake barge that was hauling it and drifted onto the sand at Grand Beach.

      The tug-boat that was hauling it, was "THE GRANITE ROCK" (one of the last of the steamships that operated on Lake Winnipeg.  It was late November in the early 1920's and it had just rounded Ironwood Point.  (The northern tip of the long stretch of shoreline that you can see on your right as you look north at Grand Beach.  The lake was very stormy with huge waves running.  Winds were gusting to 100 mph from the Northwest.  The steamship Granite Rock was hauling three barges, all loaded with lumber from Black Island to Brown and Rutherford Lumber Yard in Winnipeg.  Brown and Rutherford was located on the Red River on Higgins Avenue in Winnipeg, just north of the Louise Bridge. One of the barges broke loose and drifted onto the shore at Grand Beach.

      Within a few years, there was nothing left of it but the huge timbers that framed the bottom of the barge.  These projected out of the sand about 10 to 12 inches. The barge itself (or what was left of it) was about 16 ft in width and 30 ft in length.  Finally, by the mid-1950's it completely disappeared into the sand.

     It was located on the west beach on the shoreline, about 100 yards along the beach,  to the ease of the BEACH PATROL building that now exists there.

  CLICK HERE -- if you would like to see photos of what remains of the GRANITE ROCK.   It operated on the lake until 1962.  It's remains -- are in the Historical Ship Museum in Selkirk, Manitoba.

     Grand Beach was certainly very different in 1942, than it is now.  It was an exciting and vibrant vacation area.  Truly, they were the Golden Days of Grand Beach.

      In 1941 there was "A WRECK" on the west beach (that's what everyone called it).  Actually, it was the bottom of a large wooden barge that had been separated from a lake barge that was hauling it and drifted onto the sand at Grand Beach.

      The tug-boat that was hauling it, was "THE GRANITE ROCK" (one of the last of the steamships that operated on Lake Winnipeg.  It was late November in the early 1920's and it had just rounded Ironwood Point.  (The northern tip of the long stretch of shoreline that you can see on your right as you look north at Grand Beach.  The lake was very stormy with huge waves running.  Winds were gusting to 100 mph from the Northwest.  The steamship Granite Rock was hauling three barges, all loaded with lumber from Black Island to Brown and Rutherford Lumber Yard in Winnipeg.  Brown and Rutherford was located on the Red River on Higgins Avenue in Winnipeg, just north of the Louise Bridge. One of the barges broke loose and drifted onto the shore at Grand Beach.

      Within a few years, there was nothing left of it but the huge timbers that framed the bottom of the barge.  These projected out of the sand about 10 to 12 inches. The barge itself (or what was left of it) was about 16 ft in width and 30 ft in length.  Finally, by the mid-1950's it completely disappeared into the sand.

     It was located on the west beach on the shoreline, about 100 yards along the beach,  to the ease of the BEACH PATROL building that now exists there.

 CLICK HERE -- if you would like to see photos of what remains of the GRANITE ROCK.   It operated on the lake until 1962.  It's remains -- are in the Historical Ship Museum in Selkirk, Manitoba.

Click HERE to see a picture of "Papa" the Lifeguard Tower, on the wonderful old Grand Beach Pier, in 1942.

      Hope you enjoyed "MY STORY".  There will be more to come, God Willing and God Bless.