Attractions

There's lots going on in Gretna...

Hot Spot Festival

Gretna's Annual Festival held every year in July. Check it out online here.

Remembrance Day Ceremonies

Remembrance Day is observed November 11th at the Gretna Elementary School. Everyone is invited to attend, with a special invitation extended to all veterans, Canadian and American, who are asked to wear decorations and to participate in the Veterans Parade. Coffee and dainties are served.

Peace Bell

Since the 1960s, the Gretna Peace Bell on the corner of Ninth Street and Montcalm has been a sentinel of remembrance of fallen wartime heroes.

In its first incarnation, it was a school bell in the old wooden school house built in 1884. When the old school was replaced by a large stone structure, the bell took its rightful place in the new school. But after 1959 the bell was silenced when another public school was build across the street. On Nov. 11, 1965 the old school bell was rechristened the “Bell of Peace” or Peace Bell, and officially dedicated during Remembrance Day ceremonies in honour of the nation’s war dead. The Peace Bell structure was refurbished in 2004.

The Town of Gretna Peace Bell now rings yearly, seen and heard by the public and groups represented by the Provincial and Federal levels of government at our yearly Remembrance Day Service. It is viewed by many tourists especially in summer. These tourists come from far and wide in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Enoch Winkler House

Enoch and Helen Winkler, notable participants in the immigration of Mennonites to Canada, built this house in 1894. Being fluent in German, Enoch joined the immigration expedition as translator and later used this house to entertain dignitaries. He was the first Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Rhineland and later served as Mayor of Gretna from 1898 to 1899 and again in 1901. He served for several years in the Manitoba Legislature for the Rosenfeldt constituency.

Horse-trader Alexander C. Smith purchased the home in 1903. It sat on Lot 40 which, at the time, included most of the block and required a full-time gardener. The home stayed in the Smith family until the mid-1980s.

Lester & Laurie Schellenberg, who have owned the house since 1989, have done extensive restorative work on the house. Architecturally, it exemplifies the Italianate style so popular at the time: bay windows, tall openings and eave brackets, as well as stained glass windows and 10-foot ceilings. The servants' quarters were removed in the 1930s, but otherwise the structure of the house remains mostly original including wide mouldings and heavy oak banisters and newel post.

N.W.M.P. Cairm

In 1874, during their historic trek across the prairies to bring law and order to Western Canada, the North West Mounted Police passed through this area. Their first camp site after leaving Fort Dufferin (Emerson) was two kilometers North of here in a bluff of oak trees, where the Oakview Golf Course is now situated.

To commemorate the 125th Anniversary of the R.C.M.P. and the re-enactment of their March West in 1999, The Town of Gretna had erected a 12’X16’ open style building with a peaked metal roof. Two gable ends featured murals depicting N.W.M.P. on horseback. Centered in the shelter is an exposed aggregate cairn with two bronze plaques.

The building is located in town and is part of the Trans Canada Trail. It is also intended to serve as a rest shelter for people taking advantage of the trail.

Oakview Golf Course

A challenging, 9-hole golf course complete with a driving range, as well as water and sand hazards. Set in a lovely oak forest, this course welcomes the novice or the pro.

Visit: www.oakviewgolf.ca

Gretna Arena

More than 40 years after Charlie Hayward made his pitch to the Town Council to build a new skating rink on the south end of town, the Gretna Community Arena Committee paid off the last of the loan used to build a new, enclosed arena just south of the Public School. Built in 1976, it took 6 years of hard work and fund raising to pay for the building.

Fast forward to 2000, the Gretna Community Arena Committee embarked upon a $1 million upgrade (half of which was volunteer sweat equity) to the arena infrastructure. With project leadership by John Funk, geo-thermal artificial ice, new hockey boards and glass, four new dressing rooms & a new tractor shed were added to enhance the experience for users. Now the arena enjoys a 5 month ice season uninterrupted by warm spells which formerly threatened the natural ice surface. The arena is home to hockey programs ranging from recreational programs for beginning players through minor & high school hockey on to adult recreational leagues and public skating.

The arena schedule is also posted here.

The Arena demonstrates the community spirit that Gretna residents display, which has carried the Town from early beginnings through many difficult times.

Buhler Hall

Outside the Perimeter and well beyond average, lies a brand new 470-seat concert hall, specifically designed to make the most of music and the natural voice. Buhler Hall is an acoustically superior performance and recording venue, and after an inaugural concert with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO), it is now available for recordings and performances.

Buhler Hall's location in the inviting rural community of Gretna, is a bonus for musicians seeking a premiere, noise-free location for recording projects. Digital sound, professional grade lighting and 400 amp power supply are key components of the technical package; low-noise design principles eliminate echo and minimize vibration and distractions.

Buhler Hall is the latest addition to the campus of Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI), an independent boarding school established in 1889.

Visit: www.mciblues.net