Before the arrival of settlers, mail delivery was confined almost exclusively to serving the scattered Hudson’s Bay trading posts. It came by canoe, Red River cart or dog sled. With the arrival of settlers and the NWMP, the police frequently acted as mailmen during their patrols through the countryside. The arrival of the CPR in southern Saskatchewan brought about the creation of stage coach lines running north and south from the railheads and most of these survived because they had contracts with the government. When new branch lines snaked across the prairie, mail routes became shorter — such as Saskatoon to Battleford instead of Swift Current to Battleford. Settlers picked up each other’s mail, or carried mail to distant post offices in friendly pioneer cooperation. In most districts, the first place of business was usually the post office opened in a settler’s shack. Quite often settlers kept the post office open for years, even after having built a better house.
The author of this excerpt is Frank Anderson, well known Western Canadian historian who authored several books under the series name Gopher Books.
Yorkton’s history contains some stories of mail routes and stagecoaches, and the hard work of establishing the trail between Broadview and Yorkton. Stories to come later.
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]
