July 2018

192 193 THE RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF HANOVER LIVING IN HARMONY THE RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF Hanover T he Rural Municipality of Hanover is located in the south- east corner of Manitoba, some 70 kilometers south of Winnipeg. It was created in 1881, on part of the native lands of the Anishinabe people.Original European set- tlers included five different ethnic groups: Mennonites,Ukrainians, Germans, French, and Anglo-Saxons. In the early years, over 50 communities were established but many did not last long.The communities of Steinbach,Niverville, Blumenort, Grunthal, and Kleefeld became the trading centres and they still exist today. Steinbach, the major trading centre for the region,was estab- lished as a town in 1947.Niverville, the only other incorporated community within Hanover,was incorporated as a village in 1968. Agriculture has always been the dominant industry in the RM,with many residents either directly employed in agriculture, or in agricultural businesses and support services. Much of the land in Hanover was not ideally suited to grain farming,which led to the di- versification of the local agricultural industry into dairy, hogs, and poultry.This specializa- AT A GLANCE THE RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF HANOVER WHAT: A municipality of 16,000 WHERE: Southeastern Manitoba, Canada WEBSITE: www.hanovermb.ca