This photo shows how the Gimli Glider landed right in front of spectator bleachers set up beside the speedway. If anyone had stayed sitting in them they would have had quite the seats!

A closeup view of the Gimli Glider showing it's deployed emergency slides.

Businesses on First Avenue with a couple horse teams parked out front.

A small group of people stand around the pier to watch a swimmer dive into the harbour. The photographer has captured the diver just as they are entering the water.

This photo shows Ketill Valgarsons Store, which was built in 1904 and survived until it was destroyed in a fire in 1926.
On the ground level from left to right: Lovisa Freemanson, Ketill Valgardson, Valentinus Valgardsson, and A.C. Baker (first Constable Gimli).
On the balcony from left to right: Soffia Valgardson, Ina Olson, Kristin Valgardson, Guofinna Jonsson.

Two dog teams are harnessed and ready to pull loaded sledges onto the next destination in this wintertime photo. For the first 30 years of Gimli's history, sledges and sleighs pulled by horses, oxen, and dogs were the fastest way to get in and out of Gimli during wintertime. They are in front of the train station, which was built in 1906 and finally brought modern transportation to the town, inaugurating the modern era in Gimli. As we can see here, dog teams remained a useful and reliable form of transport for some time after the arrival of the railway.

A large crowd of men, women, and children happily pose for a photo in front of the Lakeview Hotel, which was once located on this spot facing out onto the lake (hence the name). The hotel was built in 1906 and owned by one J.G. Christie. In 1917 it was sold to the Betel Home for seniors in 1917. This property today is still the Betel Home, though the former hotel has obviously been replaced.

A view from Centre Street towards the Como Hotel, the large white building at the centre of the photo which was located where the Red River Co-op Gas Bar is on 7th Avenue. The railway station was located across the street behind it.
The arrival of the railway in 1906 was a major turning point in the history of Gimli, cementing the community's links to the rest of Manitoba. The Como Hotel was founded by one Captain Baldi, who saw Gimli's tourism potential and correctly predicted that day-trippers from Winnipeg and elsewhere would be pouring into Gimli to enjoy this unique lakeside community.

Here we see the steamer Lady of the Lake and a dredger moored in Gimli's harbour. When the settlers first arrived, it was possible to wade far out across the sand into the lake. Creating a harbour where ships with deep drafts could dock was one of their top priorities, and this dredger boat, with its great steam shovel, was essential for digging up the sandy bottom. Dredging the harbour has been ongoing ever since, as more boats that were even bigger have needed to be accommodated. A major dredging of the harbour to a depth of 12 feet was completed in 1999 in preparation for the Pan Am Games sailing events, which were held at Gimli.

Dozens of young children wade into the water at the South Beach. You can see Willow Point in the distance. They were taking part in activities at the Sparling Camp, a Methodist summer camp established in 1904, that was run just behind the beach.

A photo of children enjoying the lake during their sojourn at the Sparling Summer Camp, a Methodist camp that ran for many years after its founding in 1904. You can see the town of Gimli in the background.

Dozens of people enjoying a sunny day on Loni Beach in the late 1910s. You can see the rather conservative beach attire of the time which was presumably pretty hot to wear, because everyone on the sand is hiding in the shade of the trees behind the beach.

The Lady of the Lake tied up at Gimli's pier over an icy-looking winter.

A large group of people have gathered at the pier, perhaps to await the arrival of the steamer Lady of the Lake, which is shown in another photo that appears to be from the same occasion.

A collection of steamers overwintering along Gimli's pier. From front to back they are the Lu-berg, Goldfield, Suzanne E., Luana, Red Diamond, Barney Thomas, and the Lady Canadian.
The Suzanne E. was the scene of one of the lake's worst maritime disasters. In 1965 it was caught in a ferocious storm off Grindstone Point, some ways north of Gimli. The ship rapidly capsized and sank, taking 9 passengers and crew to the bottom. The captain and first mate just managed to climb atop the wheelhouse as the ship came apart, and floated on it all night through the storm, finally coming ashore at an isolated spot on Black Island. There the captain died of exposure, and only the first mate would survive.

A view of Centre Street in the 1930s looking towards the pier from Third Avenue. Notice how the roads have yet to be paved, and the few cars parked outside the service station on the right. The Central Bakery can be seen at the far left.

A great photo from Gimli's pier showing (starting from the left) the steamer Goldfield, the railway's windmill which was used to pump water to the train station, the Unitarian Church, Sigurdson's General store, the brick post office, and at the far right several whitefish boats tied up at the pier.

Low-lying Gimli was often subject to severe flooding whent he banks of Lake Winnipeg swelled in its early years. A series of floods in the late 1940s, includes this one in 1945, which shows much of Centre Street underwater. A major flood in 1950 finally prompted the government to intervene and fund the construction of breakwaters all along Gimli's shoreline. These have been improved and expanded in the decades since, so that major flooding of the town itself is largely a thing of the past.

This photo shows the final convention of the Icelandic Lutheran Synod of North America. It was an important moment in the history of Gimli's Lutherans, if a sad one. The Icelanders had fiercely defended their Lutheran faith, and their independent synod within it, but declining church attendance (they had just 1,500 members across western Canada and the US in the 1950s) and the growing expense of maintaining their independence led them to decide to merge with the Central Canada Synod of the Lutheran Church in America.

Several men watch a work crew paving Gimli's Centre Street in front of the Tergesen Store.