Portage la Prairie

Portage la Prairie (pop. 13,198), city of southern Manitoba. Situated between the Assiniboine River and Lake Manitoba, it was founded in 1738 by the French who built Fort LaReine there. French fur traders carried their canoes across the prairie between the river and the lake, thus giving the city its name. Today it is a key agricultural market city and food processing center for the Portage Plains region.