The Reach P584  Mennonite farmers, Yarrow, BC, 1948
 
The Russian Revolution created the impetus; when MacKenzie King was elected Prime Minister and rescinded the 1919 ban on immigration did Russians prepare for migration.  1923 saw the largest voluntary mass movement of Mennonites in history seeking freedom from religious persecution.  Canada promised freedom of religion and offered a largely unsettled country well-suited to Mennonite agricultural practices.  The 1924 drainage of Sumas Lake had exposed 12,000 acres of former lake bottom and freed the lake’s marginal lands from annual inundation, providing an attractive destination for incoming farmers.  In the late 1920’s, Mennonite communities at Yarrow and South Poplar were established.