Abandoned Manitoba 2: Winter Vaults of Manitoba 

Thank you for for making us all a little bit more informed about our world.

I grew up in Manitoba, the fourth generation of my family to work in our funeral home business. This was an interesting look at the past. I recall my dad mentioning several churches in our area (the Swan Valley) that used to have "winter crypts" in their basements, but the only one that I believe still remains is the Our Lady of Seven Sorrows church in Camperville. I now live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and our old city cemetery has a winter vault with a chapel quite similar to the one in Melita. I had the opportunity to tour the building a few years ago when I was on the Heritage Advisory Committee with the City of Moose Jaw; it was used as a chapel for committal services prior to the interment for many years. There is a special lift in the floor of the chapel to bring caskets up from the crypt below in the basement. Just like in the video, there are a number of niches or shelves where the caskets could be kept in cool conditions so the bodies wouldn’t decompose as quickly in the cooler temperatures. I understand each local funeral home at the time had several of these spaces for temporarily holding casketed bodies before burial, sort of like a morgue. Sometimes the crypt was used over the winter when grave digging was difficult due to the frozen ground, and I believe it was used during the Spanish Influenza when the large number of deaths made it difficult to keep up with timely burials. Thank you for sharing this - I found it quite fascinating!

I had stopped at the first winter vault you visited in Transcona back in the autumn just to check out the cemetery and take some selfies because I thought it was a cool looking little building. Had no idea what it was at the time. This was really informative.

My Grandfather got some temporary work from a local graveyard every spring, burying the coffins in the winter vault. Another guy dared him to open a lid. The face of the guy inside was stuck to the satin liner and peeled off right to his skull when he opened it. I remember screaming when he told me the story, I was about 8.

I find cemeteries and the stories told on the stones fascinating. I didn’t know about these vaults but wonder what was done in areas where there were no winter vaults. Very interesting.

Fascinating! Thank you Gordon!

As recently as 25 years ago, the main cemetery in Kincardine, Ontario had an actively used winter vault. As far as I know it might still be in use. I conducted several spring burials of folks whose remains were overwintered in that building.

That was very interesting! Great video and great history

Great video! Manitoba has such a rich history! Thank you!

Super knowledgeable about these historical buildings. Looking forward to watching and learning more from your channel. Thank you.

Another solid visit. Thank you.

Fascinating 👌

They still use winter vaults in some Rural Ontario communities like "Walkerton" where some of my Family lives.

I remember going to a funeral in Toronto in the winter when I was a boy and the body was put in one of those winter vaults

Very interesting! Natural preservation!

Wow!👍😎🇨🇦

I went looking(about 2 weeks ago) for the two in Winnipeg you mentioned. Only one remains. However, I was told there is one in St Pierre though(I have not looked yet)

I'm thinking those racks in the basement weren't around when the vault was in use. Each casket/contents would have weighed hundreds of pounds. Single 2x4s with holes drilled for pipes wouldn't have supported the weight. Their construction doesn't look that old either.

Torn down this winter

Were the remains from the winter vault buried in that particular cemetery or perhaps other cemeteries nearby?

Interesting vid. I had heard the term Charnel house before, but never bothered to find out exactly what it was. Thanks for all your great vids.

Winterr

Why would they not let you in? Could you not have asked the groundskeepers or management to let you film?

building mud flooded.

Such a dead video. You can't show the total inside of these so salled freezers made this a boring waste of time.

How cool. Melita is actually the only place I've stayed in Manitoba.