Boomtown 1913

Shaunavon, Saskatchewan; known to some as Bone Creek Basin, to others as Boomtown, and to still others as The Oasis of the Prairies. It's a special place, with many stories to tell.  Stories about ranchers and rodeos, pioneers and bootleggers, hardship and adventure.  It begins in 1913 on a stretch of prairie in the Cypress Hills uplands.  Come explore the early days......

In 1913, the town-site of Shaunavon was wide open prairie...ranch country.  The valleys and hills of Cypress Hills had been settled as early as 1881.  Here in Bone Creek Basin, only wind claimed the land. Early on the morning of September 17th, everything was changed.  The town-site was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).  In those days, rumours of a railway being built had a strange effect on men...like news of a gold rush. When the CPR put land up for sale on the new town-site, men lined up for hours in Gull Lake, a town 51 kilometres to the north of present day Shaunavon.  They anxiously waited their turn, hoping to buy a prime location lot near the railway. Within eight hours, 370 lots were purchased for a grand total of $210,000.00.   That was a fortune by 1913 standards.  Settlers and squatters started arriving the same day.  Many built houses on wooden skids and planted them north of town while they waited for the lot sales to be approved.  When everything was official, they hitched up a team and dragged the buildings to their new property.  Read the article from The Shaunavon Standard dated Sept. 18,1913 By November, Shaunavon was big enough to earn status as a village.  The first work train arrived in the village at month's end, carrying steel for the new track. When the railroad crews arrived, the village of Shaunavon already had a school, church, newspaper, and sixty new businesses.  Less than a year later, the population was over 700-enough to declare town status.  It needed special legislation, but Shaunavon became the first community in Canada to grow from a village to a town in under one year. Read more about Shaunavon's early days click here