Estimated Read Time:
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Estimated Read Time:
1 minute
All trails lead to Win-ni-peg /
Where the prair-ie road-ways join /
All rails lead to Win-ni-peg /
By the Red and A-ssin-i-boine
On the eve of Winnipeg’s 150th anniversary, it may come as a surprise to learn that the city has had an official song for close to 100 years.
In 1925, “All Trails Lead to Winnipeg” was selected by Mayor Ralph Webb as Winnipeg’s official melody. The song, composed in ragtime-style by Jonathan Hughes Arnett, won the mayor’s prize of $50 for the best song and music about the city.
The song was widely promoted and copies of the sheet music could be bought for 35 cents. In the words of Mayor Webb, “It is a wonderful song, and, with the musical accompaniment, is likely to become very popular. In fact, I am most hopeful that the citizens will take it up and make it a real Winnipeg song. It is my intention to have it sung at all theatres and at all gatherings of men and women, and I will try also to have the schools take it up.”
Cover of sheet music folio for “All Trails Lead to Winnipeg”. (Credit: Archives & Special Collections. Public Domain.)
Sheet music for “All Trails Lead to Winnipeg”. (Credit: Archives & Special Collections. Public Domain.)
Recordings of “All Trails Lead to Winnipeg” seem to be few and far between, but a piano rendition of the song was performed by local musician Grant Simpson in 2020. According to Simpson, he came across the song while he was living in the Yukon and kept the sheet music on his dashboard as he drove a U-Haul to Manitoba five years ago. After settling in Winnipeg, he decided to try his hand at performing it during the pandemic.
Ad about Jonathan Hughes Arnett leading community singing at a meeting at the National Theatre on Fort St. in 1926. (Credit: Winnipeg Tribune)
Announcement of contest winner on March 23, 1925. Arnett’s surname is misspelled as “Arnott”. (Credit: Winnipeg Tribune)
The sheet music is part of the ephemera collection in the Archives & Special Collections Rare Book Room in the Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Please view the library catalogue for more information, or contact Archives & Special Collections.
Wayne Chan [BSc/93, BA/00] is a research computer analyst for the Centre for Earth Observation Science. He is an avid researcher who loves history and contributes stories discovered from his research.
