SASKATCHEWAN

Estevan started as a tent community in 1892 when the CPR line was built from Brandon to the site. The site continued to grow when the Soo Line railway was built to connect Canada and the US. Trains stopped there on the way from Minneapolis to Moose Jaw. It is thought that Estevan was named after two people - George Stephen ( first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company ) and William van Horne ( second president of the company). Parts of the two names were combined to form the name Estevan. But according to the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, Estevan was the "telegraph address" of George Stephen and that is how the community got its name.

At first the site was a resting place on the Carlton Trail (Red River Cart Trail) between Fort Qu'Appelle and Fort Carlton. In 1876 a telegraph station/stagecoach depot was built. The place was named Humboldt - after the German explorer and scientist, Baron Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. The Benedictine monks of St. Peter’s Colony were among the first settlers (1903). The railway arrived in 1905. Many of the settlers in the community were German.

The Barr colonists were a group of nearly 3000 English settlers who arrived in 1903. They were led by Reverend Barr. Their community was first called Britannia Settlement. A few years later Reverend G.E. Lloyd became the leader of the settlers. The people changed the name to Lloydminster in his honour. When the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, the village of Lloydminster was split in half.

Isaac Martens and son Dave purchased land twelve kilometers north of Saskatoon in 1939. Small parcels of land were sold to people who wanted to move out of Saskatoon and. the community of Martensville was created.

In 1799 a Hudson's Bay Company's surveyor (Peter Fidler) founded "Lac des Prairies", the original name for Meadow Lake. A company post was built but remained open for only one season. In 1873 Cyprien and Mary Morin moved their family to Meadow Lake and opened a Hudson's Bay Company post, traded furs and raised cattle and horses. In 1889, a group of Cree Indians settled on a reserve north of Meadow Lake and several Metis families settled on the west end of Meadow Lake. Other settlers began arriving in 1907 and 1908. The forests provided building material. There was game, fish and wild fruit. The early settlers survived and created a community.

The first settlers came to the area in 1892 and settled about 2.4 km (1.5 miles) south of the present site. They called their settlement Stoney Creek. The name Melfort was that of the first post office in the area which had been named after Mary Melfort Campbell of Melfort, Argyleshire Scotland. She was the wife of Indian Agent, Regenald Beatty. Melfort is known as the "City of Northern Lights" because the aurora borealis can be seen in the night skies for much of the year.

In 1907 the community of Melville started to grow where the railway lines joined together. The town was named after Charles Melville Hays who was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway. The community became known as "The Rail Centre".

There are a few stories of how this community got its name. One story tells of a man who had broken the wheel of his Red River cart. He was supposed to have fixed it by tying the jaw bone of a moose to the broken part. Another story says that it was named after the Indian name for the creek moosoochappishannissippi --- "the creek that is shaped like a moose's jaw". One more theory is that the name comes from a Cree word "moosegaw" meaning warm breezes. The city was once called "Little Chicago of the Prairies" because it was a home for bootleggers and gangsters.

North Battleford and Battleford are very close to each other. The communities are near where two rivers run together. These rivers are the North Saskatchewan River and the Battle River. Before the explorers and pioneers came, the Cree and Blackfoot tribes fought many times along the river. They called the river the "fighting water". This is how the river became known as Battle River. A fort was built in 1805 so trappers could bring their furs to sell. The fort grew into a town in 1874. In 1876 the North West Mounted Police build Fort Battleford. A railroad was built on the other side of the river and more people came (1905). The town that grew on the north side of the river became known as North Battleford.

Henry Kelsey explored the area in 1692. Then Peter Pond, another explorer, helped build a tur trading post on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River in 1776. Settlers led by Reverend James Nisbet settled on the south shore in 1866. Nisbet built a Presbyterian Mission and named the community Prince Albert in honour of Queen Victoria's husband.

The site was first called "Pile of Bones". It was at a place where the Plains Indians and Metis people killed many bison (buffalo) and stacked the bones in large piles. The first train arrived in 1882 and the small community was renamed "Regina" (in honor of Queen Victoria). Regina became the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police (1882) and the seat of government of the Northwest Territories. When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, Regina was named the capital. Regina is sometimes called the "Queen City". In Latin, the word "regina" means "queen".

The name comes from a red berry which grows in the area. The Cree called the berry mis-sask-guah-too-min meaning "wild berries". The word sounded alot like "saskatoon" to John Lake the leader of a religious group that had settled on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River in 1882-1883. So the settlement became known as Saskatoon. This city is also known as "The City of Bridges" because of the seven bridges crossing the river.

It is named after the creek which was once the site of Indian and fur trader camps. The camps were set up along the shallow places beside the "swift current" creek (or "strong current" creek). In 1874 the North West Mounted Police had a camp by the creek. Then the Canadian Pacific Railway built a depot in 1882 and the community of Swift Current was born. The tiny settlement became a freight station for Western Canada. Goods were loaded onto wagons and Red River Carts and hauled to other communities. In the early 1900s settlers arrived from Europe to ranch and to farm.

The community was situated where two railways intersected (1904). Many settlers arrived in 1906, but later the population dropped. In the 1950s the population began to increase again. Warman is north of Saskatoon.

Scottish railroad workers gave the community its name. In 1893, this marshy site at the headwaters of the Souris River was called "wee burn". Settlement began after the railway was built. Records tell that the community of Weyburn was founded in 1898 when a settlement started to grow near the Station house and freight shed. 1902 was a boom year when many people arrived from the United States.

The York Farmers' Colonization Company invited settlers from York County and other parts of southern Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, Manitoba, Great Britain and the United States to homestead in the area. In 1882 settlers arrived and named their settlement "York Colony". The hamlet of "York City" was located on the banks of the Little White Sand River 4.6 km (2 1/2 miles) north of present day Yorkton. The name of the hamlet was changed to "Yorkton" ( January 1, 1884) with the official opening of the post office. When the railroad was built Yorkton moved to where it is now located. In the late 1890s immigrants arrived from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Germany, Hungary and Sweden to homestead in the surrounding area.