Before there was Grant Park Mall and the Pan Am Pool, this area in South Winnipeg was Rooster Town – or Pakan Town, as its residents called it. In small homes built on the fringes of the city, the community’s mostly Métis residents lived their lives and raised their families here for more than 50 years before the city forced them out.

An enormous thank you to Frank and Darryl Sais for sharing their stories with us for this episode!

Thank you also to Evelyn Peters, Adrian Werner, Andrew Stock, and the late Lawrence Barkwell for their Rooster Town project. Much of their data, photos, etc., can be found on the project website here: https://roostertown.lib.umanitoba.ca

If you have stories about Rooster Town/Pakan Town or you know someone who does, please get in touch!

  • Homes in Rooster Town. Courtesy of Darryl Sais
  • Frank Sais as a child. Courtesy of Darryl Sais.
  • Frank’s water wagon. Courtesy of Darryl Sais.
  • Ernest and Elizabeth Stock, two non-Métis members of the community, 1959. Winnipeg Free Press.
  • Belva Cardinal and her children, 1951. Winnipeg Tribune.
  • A Winnipeg Free Press reporter on Weatherdon Ave, 1959. MB Archives.
  • Rooster Town in 1959. MB Archives.
  • The Rooster Town Reunion Picnic. Courtesy of Darryl Sais.
  • Frank Sais in front of an art panel depicting his water wagon. Courtesy of Darryl Sais.
  • A plan showing where Grant Park mall will be. Winnipeg Free Press, 1953-08-18.
  • An aerial view plan for Grant Park Mall. Winnipeg Tribune, 1953-11-18.
  • City assessment from 1958 showing the property in possession of Charles Sais.
  • City assessment from 1959 showing the property in possession of the City of Winnipeg.

Sources/Further Reading

Published by Alex Judge

I'm a historian with an MA in Soviet and American history, but these days most of my research time goes into local Winnipeg history for my podcast, One Great History.

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