My father was born in 1912 in Gimli. He lived all of his 91 years there. As a commercial fisherman on Lake Winnipeg, he experienced her moods in all three fishing seasons. He had a remarkable memory and was always passing on stories about the people he met and the happenings around the lake. I am happy to share, word for word, one of the stories that he wrote out longhand.

Drunken Point is a small point found on Lake Winnipeg in the Arnes area. Here are two versions that I heard, that explain how this name came about.

Many years before the Icelandic settlers came to the area in 1875, Lake Winnipeg was part of a very long Hudson Bay Company trade route. The long journey of the York boats and freighting canoes began at Fort Garry, wound down the Red River, along the length of Lake Winnipeg all the way to the Nelson River and finally to York Factory on the Hudson Bay.

After loading their York boats and large canoes with furs and provisions for the long journey, a keg or two of rum was always part of the Voyageur rations. They always traveled in a flotilla and had to make certain landmarks each day in order to stay on time. One landmark, which was of great importance to them, was two days travel from Fort Garry. It was a small point, where a rather small river flowed into Lake Winnipeg. They would try their utmost to arrive as early as possible because it was there that they would break open a keg (or kegs) of rum and have what we would call “Happy Hour”. This occasion became a ritual on every journey from Fort Garry to York Factory and that is how it became known as “Drunken Point”.

The second origin story for Drunken Point comes from the late 1890s to early 1900s. Before the railroad pushed north, the fish freighters would haul the winter season’s catch with teams of horses. The winter fishing grounds went as far as Bull Head, which is about 50 miles North of present day Riverton. (Before 1900, the railroad only reached Selkirk. It ran to Winnipeg Beach by 1900 and to Gimli in 1906.)

The fish freighters did not have cabooses with folding canvas shelters for the horses, so every night they had to make it to one of the “special stopping places” that dotted the countryside. Here, at the end of each day, meals were served and there would be extra stalls in the barns for the horses. There were usually about 25 miles between these stopping places.

When leaving Selkirk (or wherever the current end of the railroad was located), the freighters would be sure to pack along a bottle or two of Hudson Bay rum. After an evening meal at one of these stopping places, the freighters would share a drink or two with their hosts.

One of the most popular hosts was at a stopping place at a small point on Lake Winnipeg, not far from present day Arnes. The host there would always welcome a drink. Many ‘happy hours’ were spent at this stopping place and sometimes a brief stopover would be extended to accommodate the extra ‘happiness’.

Some of the Temperance people living along the lake frowned upon these shenanigans. To show their displeasure, they disparagingly named the point where the stopping place homestead was located, “Drunken Point”.

Ted Kristjanson