In 1882 and 1883, when the York Farmers Colonization Company released promotional materials on the new settlement of York Colony, there were details on a map about the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway passing through Whitewood, Broadview and onward due west. There are also markings of a proposed railway angling northwest from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, through to York City and onward towards Prince Albert. The railway plans were those of the Manitoba and North Western Railway that had reached Portage in 1881. It inched its northwesterly way through Minnedosa, Langenburg, Churchbridge and Saltcoats by 1888. It was slow going because of serious financial problems. We are told that a new major investor, Hugh Allan was not in the good graces of the Dominion Government and they in turn were limiting their aid to this company. However, Nathaniel Clarke Wallace, the President of the York Farmers Colonization Company was still putting pressure on all concerned to get the railway to Yorkton. This, even though the Company was no longer in charge of the colony since their charter had expired in 1888. So, finally the rails were laid up to Yorkton, but the company insisted on a new site — four kilometers south of the first site and so the first train pulled into the new Yorkton in 1891. The Company was finally taken over in 1901 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. By 1904, the rails had reached Sheho. The C.P.R. abandoned the plan to go to Prince Albert and arrived in Saskatoon in 1909. The now forgotten colonization railway company, the Manitoba & North Western Railway had been in operation from 1881 to 1900.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
