Rural Municipality of Gimli
| Gimli, Manitoba | |
|---|---|
| Rural municipality | |
Gimli and Lake Winnipeg
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| Motto: The Heart of New Iceland | |
 Gimli, Manitoba
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| Coordinates: 50°39′43″N 97°01′47″W / 50.66194°N 97.02972°WCoordinates: 50°39′43″N 97°01′47″W / 50.66194°N 97.02972°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Manitoba |
| Region | Interlake |
| Demonym: | Gimlungur (singular); Gimlungar (plural) |
| Founded | October, 1875 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Randy Woroniuk |
| Area | |
| • Land | 326.3 km2 (126.0 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 222 m (728 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Density | 18.2/km2 (47/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 5,845 |
| • Urban density | 319.25/km2 (826.9/sq mi) |
| Postal code | R0C 1B0 R0C 1B1 |
| Area code(s) | 204 |
| Website | gimli.ca |
Gimli is a rural municipality located in the Interlake region of south-central Manitoba, Canada, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. It is about 75 kilometres (47 mi) north of the provincial capital Winnipeg. The rural municipality's population in the 2011 Canada census was 5,845.
The town of Gimli and surrounding districts were once an Icelandic ethnic block settlement, and the area, known as New Iceland, is home to the largest concentration of people of Icelandic ancestry outside Iceland. It also has significant Ukrainian and German communities, at 12% and 6% respectively.
The Town of Winnipeg Beach lies adjacent to its southeast corner, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, between it and the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews to the south.
Gimli was founded by a large group of Icelandic settlers who arrived in New Iceland on Lake Winnipeg in the 1870s. Beyond the borders of Manitoba as it was then, this settlement fell within the District of Keewatin, until 1881 when Manitoba was enlarged. In 1876 the community was hit by a severe outbreak of smallpox. Originally organized as a self-administering "Icelandic reserve" directly responsible to Ottawa, the settlers of New Iceland developed a unique constitution of by-laws for local government which remained in effect until they adopted provincial municipal government in 1887. The initial status of New Iceland as a "reserve" remained in effect until 1899.
In the Gimli Glider incident on 23 July 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 en route from Montreal to Edmonton ran out of fuel and made an unpowered landing on a decommissioned runway (having been used as a drag strip) at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former RCAF base near Gimli with no control tower and no fire trucks available. A reenactment of the incident has aired on Discovery Channel's Mayday series and on Syfy's Urban Legends series.
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