Named after Lord Selkirk, a Scottish Laird, who helped settle this area of Canada. The "great experiment" he undertook, was to relocate hundreds of Scottish and Irish peasants along the shores of the Red River, and create for them a new life in a new land. In the short term he was to fail. He did not create the great settlements he dreamed of, nor did he launch a new life for many, but he did open up a new frontier, he did launch a splendid idea, and he did surround his name with such an aura of genius and determination that the name of Selkirk was formally chosen to identify this point on the Red River. Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, died in 1820. At his death he was nearly bankrupt and an embittered man. During his lifetime he had acquired and then been forced to sell, forty-four million acres of land on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. His shiploads of farmers to this part of the new world, his costly and bloody battles to protect his colony against the North West Company, and his financial struggles in London had drained him. In 1880, the first move was made to incorporate the Town. So popular was the name of Selkirk and so strong the memory of all he had achieved that it was no contest. The formal papers incorporating the Town of Selkirk was issued in July of 1882.