Dauphin, town, southwestern Manitoba, Canada. It lies along the Vermilion River just west of Dauphin Lake, 201 miles (323 km) by road northwest of Winnipeg. The French trader and explorer La Vérendrye visited the lake in 1739 and named it for the dauphin of France. One of the two settlements that developed in the area after 1882 took the same name. The settlements, Dauphin and Gartmore, merged in 1896, when the Lake Manitoba Railway reached the site. The town became a service centre for a large agricultural region and the area headquarters for the Canadian National Railway, a major employer. It is also a tourist base for nearby Riding Mountain National Park (south) and Duck Mountain Provincial Park and Forest (northwest) and hosts Canada’s annual National Ukrainian Festival (August). Inc. village, 1898; town, 1901. Pop. (2006) 7,906; (2011) 8,251.