New book to delve into history of Manitoba farming community

Dr. Gordon Goldsborough with the Manitoba Historical Society talks about a new book being created about the history of Starbuck, Man.

A Manitoba researcher writing a book about the roots of a small farming community is calling on the public to help fill in some of the historical blanks.

Manitoba Historical Society’s head researcher Gordon Goldsborough has begun working on a history book about Starbuck, a farming community of about 350 people situated west of the Perimeter along Highway 2.

“Many towns around Manitoba have (a history book) but Starbuck never really has, and so I think it’s about time,” he said in an interview Friday on Your Morning Winnipeg.

Goldsborough has written four books delving into different pockets of Manitoba history, two of which were national bestsellers. This time around, he has a personal connection to the material, as his own family has farmed in the Starbuck area for over 120 years.

Still, much of what he’s found in the research process has been new to him, like an abandoned home that belonged to Goldsborough’s great-aunt or the community’s former school that was built in 1910. It still stands today, housing a hockey academy.

“Which is really rare. You don’t tend to see many buildings of that era still in use,” he said.

Goldsborough said many gaps remain in his research, which he hopes residents past and present can help to address. He wants to learn about everything from family biographies to businesses that operated in Starbuck to the churches that served the community.

“Then we start digesting it, putting it together, seeing where the holes are that we can then plug with more information, so that over the course of the next year or so, we’ll have a fairly complete picture of Starbuck,” he explained.

Anyone with information to share can email Goldsborough. Meanwhile, anyone interested in following the book’s progress can visit the project Facebook page.

He’s already spoken with Starbuck residents, some of whom are in their 90s. Goldsborough hopes many more will come forward.

“The roots run far and wide. There are people all over the world who have connections to Starbuck, and that’s what we’re finding in the process of doing this research.”

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé