Sprague and the rural municipality of Piney make up a sparsely-populated rural area in Eastern Manitoba on the Minnesota border.
Understand
Sprague was named for prominent Winnipeg lumber merchant D.E. Sprague. It's a small border community in the southeasternmost corner of the province and a common waypoint for traffic headed to the south side of Lake of the Woods (in Minnesota) or onward to Ontario. The customs house is open 24/7.
Get in
By car
- From Winnipeg, take the Trans-Canada Highway to Ste. Anne, then turn south on Manitoba Hwy 12 through Blumenort and Steinbach. The road continues through Sprague to the US border.
- From Warroad and "mainland" Minnesota take Minnesota Hwy 313 north across the border, where it becomes Manitoba 12. Other local border crossings include Pinecreek to Piney and Roseau to South Junction. All lead to roads which terminate on Manitoba 12.
- From Ontario the mainline Trans-Canada Highway leads further north (through Kenora) to get past Lake of the Woods, but a possible alternate routing leads along the south shore from "Manitoba to Ontario via Minnesota" aka "MOM's Way". That routing follows TCH 1 and MB 12 between Winnipeg and Sprague, MN 11 between Warroad and Baudette, then crosses the Ontario border at Rainy River.
- From the Northwest Angle and Angle Inlet, the Winter Road enters at an unattended border crossing as MB Provincial Road 525 (portions of this road are dirt or gravel), which leads to Provincial Road 308. There's basically nothing (no populated place, no services, no mobile telephone signal) on these roads, but MB 308 does lead north to the Trans-Canada mainline and south to Sprague. This route is commonly used by Anglers, the people of the Northwest Angle, to reach the "mainland" cities of Roseau and Warroad as the only overland route from the Angle to the rest of Minnesota is the road through Manitoba.
Get around
See and do
Buy
Eat
- SJ Diner, MB-310 (at MB 12), South Junction, +1 204-437-2643. 9AM-7PM daily. Former Shaker's Inn, located inside the Clearview Co-Op in South Junction, Manitoba.
Drink
Sleep
- Sprague River Inn, 2072 Main St., +1 204-437-2245. This tiny hotel was built in 1928. The first beverage room in Southeastern Manitoba was built as an addition in the early 60's.
Go next
wikipedia:Sprague, Manitoba