Hnausa Beach Provincial Park is a provincial park in Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg north of Gimli, Manitoba.[1] The beach within the park is named after the nearby community of Hnausa.[1]Hnausa is an Old Icelandic word for a piece of turf.[2] This part of Manitoba is known as New Iceland due to the significant Icelandic settlement of the area that began in 1875.[3]
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, railway companies became involved in the promotion of travel by rail to the beaches of Lake Winnipeg.[4] The railway reached Riverton in 1914, opening the area around Hnausa to day travel from Winnipeg.[3]
The Rural Municipality of Bifrost purchased the land on which the current park stands to be a community park in 1930.[3] The Hnausa portion of the Manitoba Icelandic festival was held at the park before Gimli became the sole location of the festival activities.[5][3] Ownership of the land was passed to the province in 1959 and it was declared a provincial park in 1961.[3] It is 10 ha (25 acres) in size.[6]
The park is located within the Gimli ecodistrict of the Interlake Plain ecoregion part of the Boreal Plains ecozone.[7]
^Bessasson, Haraldur (May 1960). "Icelandic Place Names in Manitoba and North Dakota"(PDF). Proceedings of the Linguistic Circle of Manitoba and North Dakota. II (1): 9. Retrieved 18 July 2019. Hnausa is a hamlet between Gimli and Riverton. The nom. sing. of this noun is (Old Icel. hnauss) which means "a sod" or "a flag of turf". Here one would expect the nom. plur. hnausar, but it is conceivable that Hnausa is a shortened or an elliptic form as we have in the Icelandic community name Hnausabyggt, "the settlement around Hnausa" the first element of which is gen. plur.
^ abcdePenziwol, Shelley (2011). From Asessippi to Zed Lake : a guide to Manitoba's provincial parks. Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications. ISBN9781926531144.
^Oosterom, Nelle (November 6, 2014). "Ties that bind". Canada's History. Canada's History Society. Retrieved 18 July 2019. For those without the means to stay at a luxury resort, the railways provided affordable day excursions to the beach. Lake Winnipeg, north of the city of Winnipeg, was a particularly popular destination.
^Valgardson, W. D. "The Icelandic in Íslendingadagurinn | wdvalgardsonkaffihus.com Blog". wdvalgardsonkaffihus.com Blog. Retrieved 18 July 2019. At one time, the Icelandic Celebration was held in Winnipeg, then moved to two locations, Hnausa and Gimli, Manitoba. Eventually, the annual celebration at Hnausa ceased.
