Langenburg

Vesturfarar

Langenburg is a town in Saskatchewan near the Manitoba border. The area was surveyed around 1880 by Canadian authorities, which focused on importing settlers west of the Canadian Plains. British settlers soon settled there, and around 1850 German immigrants flocked there. Helgi Jónsson, Leifur’s editor in Winnipeg, paid attention to this, he was hired by the Canadian authorities to promote the plain west of Manitoba among his fellow countrymen. It was called the Northwestern Territories until the turn of the century. Helgi kept a close eye on the plans of railway companies that competed to plan railways to the west. He took a train west in 1885 and took it as far as possible, then continued west on a horse-drawn carriage until he reached Shellmouth, a small village almost on the border of Manitoba and the Northwest. He expected the train tracks to be laid there, settled in the village and opened a shop. There he miscalculated because a year later the track was laid much further south and did not pass through Shellmouth. He did not let it get to him, he moved west to Langenburg where he opened another store, now with Bjarni Davíðsson from Dalasýsla. Helgi died in 1887, Bjarni sold the store and moved west to Churchbridge. Langenburg expanded as settlers increased in the district around the village. Shortly after the turn of the century, settlers from the Nordic countries began to settle and in 1903 the village was granted town rights.