A Scottish organization in Winnipeg is offering a reward after someone pried off eight bronze plaques from a monument honouring the Selkirk Settlers.

The Thistle Monument honours the Selkirk Settlers, the Highland Scots families who settled Manitoba's Red River Valley. (John Redekop/CBC)

The St. Andrews Society is now offering a reward of $200 apiece for the return of the plaques, which were taken off Thistle Monument on Waterfront Drive earlier this week.

Bob Vandewater with the society said city workers called him Tuesday to tell him the plaques were gone from the back of the monument.

He said it would have been no easy task to take them off.

"It would take a very strong person. This is not done by a 14-year-old with a pen knife," he said.

"They would have had to had brought tools. And you can see by some of the marks on the concrete that they've used heavier tools."

Vandewater said it will cost more than $2,000 apiece to replace the plaques. He suspects someone wanted them for the copper content.

What disappoints him most is that they won't be able to replace them in time for the 200th anniversary celebration of the Selkirk Settlers next month.