Dauphin, Man, Town, pop 8085 (2001c), 8266 (1996c), 8453 (1991c), 8875 (1986c), area, 12.65 km2, inc as a village 1898, as a town 1901, is located in southwest Manitoba, 304 km by road northwest of Winnipeg, on the Vermilion River. It is a prosperous supply, distribution and transportation centre, serving a rich agricultural region stretching from the Saskatchewan border east to Lakes Manitoba and Winnipeg and north to Swan River. It is also a government administration centre and has an active tourist trade.
Pierre de LA VÉRENDRYE first visited the area in the 1730s and gave the name Dauphin, for the eldest son of the king of France, to a post in the area (1741). Settlers from Ontario arrived in the 1880s, and the villages of Old Dauphin and Gartmore developed near the present townsite, which was established after the arrival of the Lake Manitoba Railway (1896). UKRAINIAN immigrants set up one of their earliest rural settlements in the area (1896-98) and still maintain a strong sense of their cultural past. Dauphin initiated Canada's annual National Ukrainian Festival in the early 1960s.