Portage la Prairie (/ˈpɔːrtɪdʒləˈprɛəri/ ) is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was 24.68 square kilometres (9.53 sq mi).[2]
Portage la Prairie is approximately 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Highway (exactly halfway between the provincial boundaries of Saskatchewan and Ontario). The community sits on the Assiniboine River, which flooded the town persistently until a diversion channel north to Lake Manitoba (the Portage Diversion) was built to divert the flood waters. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie.
According to Environment Canada, Portage la Prairie has the most sunny days during the warm months in Canada.[5]
Long before European settlers arrived in the mid-1800s,[6] the Portage la Prairie area was first inhabited by several Indigenous nations (including the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe, Cree, and Dakota/Sioux peoples) at various times across millennia.[7]
Though anthropological evidence suggests the emergence of pre-historic plains cultures in southwestern Manitoba as early as 12,000 years ago, inhabitable grasslands and human activity likely never emerged around present-day Portage la Prairie until the receding of Lake Agassiz 8,000-10,000 years ago.[8]
Legend has it that notable coureurs des bois Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers—both instrumental in the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company—may have been the first Europeans to visit the area as early as the mid-17th century.[9] The name "Portage la Prairie", perhaps coined by these early explorers, is derived from the French word portage, which means to carry a canoe overland between waterways, in this case over "the prairie". This particular "portage" route, used by Indigenous peoples even before the global Fur Trade, ran for 25 kilometres between the Assiniboine River and Lake Manitoba.