Swan River is a town in Manitoba, Canada. It is surrounded by the Municipality of Swan Valley West in the Swan River Valley region. According to the 2021 Canadian Census, Swan River had a population of 4,049, making it Manitoba's 18th largest in population. History Located in a valley between the Duck Mountains and the Porcupine Hills, the town of Swan River is close to the Saskatchewan boundary in west-central Manitoba. The town is situated along the Swan River which flows into Swan Lake, to the north-east. Swan Lake is believed to be named for trumpeter swans that once bred near the lake, but are now locally extirpated. Henry Kelsey became the first European explorer to visit the area in 1690. The name of the lake is first noted on a map created by Peter Fidler in 1795 and again on a French map in 1802 (as L du Cigne). The first permanent European settlement dates back to 1770, when fur traders from both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company established outposts along the Swan River where they bought and sold goods to local Cree peoples by way of birch bark canoes. In 1876, the musical band of the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, made its debut in what was later to become Swan River. The instruments used in the band were purchased by the 20 officers in the band and shipped from Winnipeg by dog sled. The first pioneers arrived in the Swan Valley through the Duck Mountains in 1897 and quickly developed the farming potential of the area. The proposed construction of a line of the Canadian Northern Railway was announced in 1898 and the town was founded in 1900, though it was little more than a post office at the time. Swan River was officially incorporated as a town in 1908. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Swan River had a population of 4,049 living in 1,825 of its 2,020 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 4,014. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Geology The Swan River Valley is not truly a river valley, but is instead a western extension of the Manitoba lowlands into the Manitoba Escarpment. The Valley is surrounded by escarpment features on three sides: the Duck