History of Lake Riviera Estates, the Development Property
"BROTHERS BUILD $50,000 RESORT;
ARTIFICIAL LAKE NEAR STE. ANNE"
​
Newspaper article dated December 5, 1958
​
A $50,000, artificial lake, the largest of its kind in Manitoba, neared completion this week three miles east of Ste. Anne.
​
Planned as a commercial summer resort and financed by private capital, the 11 acres of lake, five acres of sand beach, and 20 acres of picnic ground will be the property of W.G. Walker of Ste. Anne in partnership with his brother Tom Walker of New York. It will be open for business to the resort trade about the first of June.
​
The resort covers a total of 120 acres and the lake may later be enlarged to cover as much as 20 acres. It will feature a complete line of business concessions and bathers' showers. The lake will be stocked with top grade trout and aluminum boats provided for fishermen.
​
The artificial lake was created by building a dam across a wide ravine. The dam itself is 1100 feet long, 35 feet high at the centre, 120 feet wide at the bottom, and 30 feet wide at the top. A concrete spillway will allow excess water to fall through the dam. A sluice gate built into the bottom of the dam makes the draining of the lake possible if necessary. A road across the top of the dam provides a scenic drive from the beach to the picnic ground. One hundred picnic tables will be built beneath the shade trees as soon as next spring's thaw permits work to commence.
​
The Walker brothers, who are Irish, originally intended to call their lake some good Irish name like "Galway Bay", but decided it didn't fit in right with a name like Ste. Anne. Now they're sponsoring a contest among the pupils of Ste. Anne, Talbot, Talbot East and Richer schools to choose a suitable name. A $10.00 prize goes to the pupil whose entry most appeals to the Walkers. Bill Walker who will be the resident manager, points out that "a name is pretty important to a place like this". Bill has farmed in the Ste. Anne district for a number of years and is known as a dairy herdsman. His brother Tom operates an oil products supply business and owns a fleet of taxis in Yonkers, New York.
​
Fast Brothers of Blumenort, well known earth moving contractors are the lake's builders. They have done about $30,000 worth of work at the site in the past five weeks and used every piece of equipment they owned to complete the job. Because the job had to be done this fall, they worked right through the recent blizzards without a let-up. When two men quit because of the cold weather, they hired two more and kept right on going.
​
The resort scheme was originally planned by Lorne Thompson of Winnipeg who owned 120 acres before the Walker Brothers. A firm of Winnipeg engineers drew up the plans to survery the site in 1957. When pressure of other business forced Thompson to abandon the idea, the Walkers bought the property and went ahead to build the lake.
​