The Salt Almanac Français

Salt places to visit · Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba

Lake Winnipegosis salt springs

By The Salt AlmanacUpdated November 8, 2026

Salt springs on the shores of a great Manitoba lake, where Ojibway and Métis families boiled brine into salt for the Red River Settlement for most of the 1800s.

At a glance

WhereDuck Bay, Swan Lake and the Red Deer Peninsula, Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba
Type of placeHistoric salt-making country
Salt connectionBrine springs along Lake Winnipegosis drew game for seasonal hunts and later supported year-round Ojibway and Métis salt-making at Duck Bay.
How the salt was madeBrine was boiled in iron kettles about 5 by 2 by 1 feet. In 1858 Henry Youle Hind recorded that 30 gallons of brine made a bushel of salt.
What you can seeDuck Bay is a mainly Métis community on the lake's west shore. Near Highway 10, the remains of the 1937 McArdle salt works (timbers and a well crib) mark a later, failed attempt at commercial salt.
Protected landThe salt flats west of the lake are protected as the Lake Winnipegosis Salt Flats Ecological Reserve (1992, 4,725 hectares). Check Manitoba's rules before visiting.

The salt story

In 1799 the fur trader Alexander Henry noted the salt springs and the hunts held around them. By 1839 a Catholic mission at Duck Bay described salt as an important part of the Ojibway and Métis economy. The Métis Monkman family made salt at Swan Lake, Duck Bay and the Red Deer Peninsula from 1818, about 1,000 bushels a year by the 1870s, and the Brass family worked at Shoal River for more than 60 years. The salt was packed in birch-bark containers called rogans, taken by York boat to Oak Point and by Red River cart to the Red River Settlement and Portage la Prairie. Once the railway brought cheap salt from the east, the trade collapsed, and by 1887 it was insignificant.

Hours, seasons and prices change. Check with the site before you travel.

More salt places

Salt MuseumErie Canal MuseumStrataca: Kansas Underground Salt MuseumSalt Plains National Wildlife Refuge

See all salt places to visit

Cite this page

For school projects and reports. Teachers often prefer the original sources too: see the list below.

The Salt Almanac. (2026, November 8). Lake winnipegosis salt springs. https://saltalmanac.com/places/lake-winnipegosis-salt-springs

Original sources

  1. Petch, V. Salt-Making in Manitoba. Manitoba History 51, 2006. https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/MB_history/51/saltmaking.shtml
  2. Manitoba Historical Society. Historic Sites of Manitoba: McArdle Salt Works. https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/mcardlesaltworks.shtml
  3. Wikipedia. Lake Winnipegosis Salt Flats Ecological Reserve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipegosis_Salt_Flats_Ecological_Reserve
  4. Wikipedia. Duck Bay, Manitoba. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Bay,_Manitoba