page_title: Mortlach, Saskatchewan
section_title: Homesteading days
hierarchical_section_title: Mortlach, Saskatchewan / History / Homesteading days
caption_attribution_description: English: Grain elevators in Mortlach, Saskatchewan, Canada. The grain elevator on right under demolition.
context_page_description: Mortlach is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Wheatlands No. 163 and Census Division No. 7. The village is located on the Trans Canada Highway about 40 km west of the City of Moose Jaw. Thunder Creek passes the community to the north where it is joined by Sandy Creek. Mortlach became a village on April 19, 1906 and is one of two towns in Saskatchewan to have been incorporated as a town to then be reverted to village status on January 1, 1949, the other is the village of Alsask.
context_section_description: In 1904, the Canadian Pacific Railway's (CPR) new line became operational and the Village of Mortlach came to life on land originally homesteaded in 1902 by a Khamis Michael, a native of what is today Iraq. By the spring of 1905, many people who had homesteaded the summer before along with new homesteaders began building. The first store, post office, and lumber and coal supply would be owned by Mr. E.B. Tedford. Scribner and Wheeler built the first hotel in 1905 and the first school was built that fall.
  One year later, in 1905, Mortlach already had a Board of Trade with a strong business district including two businesses, three general stores, lumber and coal suppliers, post office, livery, hotel, meat market, and an implement and harness dealer. In the fall of 1905 there was a section house but no station until 1906, built along with an elevator. The first Royal Northwest Mounted Police were stationed here in 1905 the same year that the Province of Saskatchewan was created. These were exciting times. The first weekly Mortlach newspaper was printed in Caron and the Methodist Church was also organized that year. The first doctor came to town that year and Mortlach fast became a popular place to stop and visit. 1907 saw many additional businesses grow, more hardware and implements, dry goods, general stores, harness shops, butchers, tinsmith, livery, real estate and insurance, and a hotel with a restaurant.
  1907 was also the year of a Small Pox Epidemic so a new house that was being built became an isolation hospital. The Bank of Hamilton opened a branch on Rose Street and Khamis Michael built a rink on Dean Street. The first exhibition was held in that rink on August 4, 1908. Mortlach incorporated as a Village in 1909 with about 700 residents. The Star Theatre was built in 1910 by A.C. Baker. Soon there were many more businesses in this thriving community: a Red and White Store, two restaurants, blacksmith, grocery store, two cobblers, butcher, baker, undertaker, embalmer, flour miller, electric repair shop, Chinese laundry, veterinarian, Beaver Lumber, Imperial Lumber, Bank of Toronto, photo studio, newspaper publisher, livery stable and auto garage, and another implement shop.
caption: Historic grain elevators in Mortlach. Former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool on right under demolition.
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