Steady Growth

By the turn of the century, Altona was a well-established community of about 200 people, boasting subdivisions on either side of the tracks, with a flour mill, three grain elevators, numerous businesses, over a dozen homes, and a two-storey hotel. It became an agribusiness centre: a bustling island in a sea of rolling wheat fields. In the mid-1920's, hundreds of area Mennonites, concerned about the preservation of their culture, chose to move to Mexico and Paraguay, but many were soon replaced by a steady influx of post-war immigrants once again facing hardships in Russia.