Winnipeg women stop the removal of the Wolseley Elm 1957.

Mary Ann Good planted the tree that came
to be known as the Wolseley Elm, along with many others, on her family farm in
1860, before Wolseley Avenue existed. Mary’s elms began to be removed as the city
of Winnipeg expanded, until the Wolseley Elm was the only elm remaining that did
not stand on the side of the road. The city of Winnipeg made its first attempt
to remove the tree to make way for Wolseley Avenue sometime between 1907 and
1909. The City paved Wolseley Avenue with asphalt in 1925 and the Elm came
under threat again. A local resident halted the removal of the tree in 1925 by persuading
city workers to wait to remove the tree until they could contact city hall. The
Elm was threatened again in 1936, and at least three times in the 1940’s.

In 1957 there was a large amount of
development taking place in Winnipeg’s West End, including the construction of
a new stadium and arena, as well as the proposed construction of Polo Park
shopping mall (completed in 1959). Some Winnipegers were concerned about the elm’s
effect on traffic congestion as people used Wolseley to travel to sporting
events. The Wolseley Elm had become popular among local residents for being a
unique feature of their neighbourhood, and many claimed that the Elm benefited
public safety by causing drivers to slow down on Wolseley Avenue. The Elm was
also named by Ripley’s Believe It or Not as “the smallest park in the world”.

On 3 September 1957 Winnipeg’s civic
works committee was told that Wolseley Avenue was going to be expanded and the
committee passed a motion allowing the Elm’s removal, an act which did not
require the approval of the full city council at that time. Some city
councillors did not believe that the tree needed to be removed, and were wary
about a negative public reaction should the tree be removed.

Workers for the City of Winnipeg arrived
on the morning of 18 September 1957 to remove the Elm. They were confronted by
twelve local housewives and grandmothers, including Ann Borrowman, leader of the
1925 protest to save the Elm. The women linked arms and surrounded the Elm; one
woman told the city workers that if they wanted to chop down the Elm they would
have to chop her down first. The confrontation escalated, with more city
workers and police officers attempting to get past the women.

A police officer tried to convince the
women that the removal of the Elm had been approved by city council, when it
had only been approved by committee. The women wanted to have their say about
the fate of the Elm before the full city council, and the women refused to
move, resisting the pressure.

The women began calling for the mayor,
Stephen Juba, as well as the local ward councillor, Maude Mcreary, who had
angered them by voting for the removal of the Elm. At this point a crowd of two
to three hundred spectators had gathered to watch the protest.

Mayor Juba eventually arrived and tried
to halt the removal of the tree, but found he had no legal means to do so. Juba
eventually ordered the city engineer to wait a week to remove the Elm on the
grounds that the women were in danger and that removing the elm that day would
be a threat to Public Safety. Mayor Juba’s orders were illegal, as there was
nothing in the city charter that allowed a mayor to overturn a decision approved
by a city council committee and Juba agree to step down as mayor if city
council did not approve his decision.

Multiple suggestions were made at city
council meetings from 21st to 24th  September that would have spared the Elm as
well as allowing for the widening of Wolseley Avenue, however none were agreed
upon. While the issue was debated in council a petition was circulated that
collected one hundred and four names of people who supported the Elm. At a well
attended special meeting of the Public Works commission on 25 September 1957
the fate of the Elm was decided, and city councillors voted to allow the Elm to
remain where it stood.

While the twelve women saved the Elm
from destruction by the city, residents of the neighbourhood were not able to
protect the Elm from vandalism. The Elm was set on fire, had bark stripped from
it, grafts that were intended to heal the Elm were removed, and finally, on the
morning of 31 October 1958 residents awoke to the sound of two loud blasts; the
Elm had been dynamited. By June of 1960 no signs of life remained and the Elm
was removed without protest.