Acknowledgements | Preface | Saskatchewan Before Provincehood l Saskatchewan Populations & Premiers
1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 | 1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995

Railway construction
Lloydminster, 1905

Inauguration Day Parade
Regina,
September 4, 1905

Arriving at the homestead,
location and date unknown

Doukhobor women and children thatching roof
near Kamsack, 1905

Main Street
Radisson, 1905

Ukrainians plowing with oxen
St. Julien district, c. 1910

Laying the cornerstone
College Building, University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, 1910

Breaking sod at Zealandia
1911

Delivering grain to the Lipton elevator
1911

Inaugural run of the Regina Municipal Railway
1911

• Saskatchewan and Alberta become provinces on September 1, 1905. In Edmonton, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier attends the festivities on September 1 before making his way to Saskatchewan. People flock to Regina from every direction on Inauguration Day, September 4, 1905, to celebrate Saskatchewan’s entry into Confederation. Territorial Premier F.W.G. Haultain is passed over in favour of Walter Scott, who is named Saskatchewan’s first premier. Amédée Forget is the first Lieutenant-Governor.
  
• The year marks the mid-point of the great wave of immigration to the West which began in 1896 and will last until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
  
• The Saskatchewan Local Improvement Districts Association, forerunner of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, is formed.

1906

• Although it had been the territorial capital since 1883, it is not until May 23, 1906 that Regina is officially declared the provincial capital. The first provincial legislature meets in the former territorial government building on Dewdney Avenue.
  
• Treaty 10 is signed with First Nations in northwest Saskatchewan. When the Hatchet Lake band signs the following year, the entire province is brought under Treaty.
  
• The winter of 1906-07 is one of the worst ever. Extreme cold and blizzards take their toll as nearly 70 per cent of range cattle in southwest Saskatchewan die.
  
• The Territorial Grain Growers’ Association, formed in Sintaluta in 1901, is renamed the Saskatchewan Grain Growers’ Association. This farmers’ organization, like others which follow, seeks to influence government policies in agriculture and the grain trade.
  
• The Union of Saskatchewan Municipalities, which later becomes the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, is formed.

1907

• The University of Saskatchewan is established by an act of the Saskatchewan Legislature. Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Indian Head are all contenders for the site. The following year, Walter Murray is chosen the first president of the University. In an innovative move, Murray will insist that the College of Agriculture have equal status with other colleges.

1908

• A provincially-owned telephone system, which will become Saskatchewan Government Telephones, is formed. A year later, it buys the Saskatchewan assets of Bell Telephone and the Saskatchewan Telephone Company.
  
• Saltcoats Rural Telephone Company is the first company formed under the new Rural Telephone Act. Larger centres had telephone service as early as the 1880s. By 1908, however, only 300 farms have telephones.

1909

• Early maturing Marquis wheat, first tested at the experimental farm in Indian Head, is made available to farmers. Within a few years, Marquis is the most widely grown variety of wheat in the West.
  
• Saskatoon is chosen as the home of the University of Saskatchewan two years after the legislation to create it was passed. The first classes are held in a downtown office building.
  
• The cornerstone is laid for the Legislative Building in Regina.

1910

• Prime Minster Wilfrid Laurier lays the cornerstone for the College Building at the University of Saskatchewan.
  
• The Weyburn Security Bank opens, the only Saskatchewan-chartered bank to operate in the province. When the Depression strikes 20 years later, the bank runs into trouble and is bought out by the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1931.
  
• The Regina Rugby Club is formed. In 1924 it becomes the Regina Roughriders and in 1950, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

1911

• The census shows that Saskatchewan is Canada’s third largest province by population.
  
• Seager Wheeler, a farmer from Rosthern, wins the first of five world wheat championships and puts Saskatchewan on the map. His entry of Marquis wheat earns him $1000 at the New York Land Show. Wheeler uses the money to pay off his farm. A few years later, he goes on to develop new varieties of barley, wheat and oats.
  
• The farmer-owned Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company is formed. Forty-six elevators are ready for the 1911-1912 crop year.
  
• Homemakers’ Clubs are formed to work for better living conditions in rural Saskatchewan.
  
• Only eight years after the Wright brothers’ historic flight, Bob St. Henry makes the first airplane flight in Saskatchewan. It takes place on the western outskirts of Saskatoon.
  
• Saskatchewan’s first electric street railways begin service in Regina and Moose Jaw. Two years later, Saskatoon streetcars make their inaugural run.
  
• The Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League is organized to fight widespread tuberculosis. The “white plague” is the leading cause of illness and death at this time.

1912

• On June 30, the Regina Tornado kills 28 people, destroys 500 buildings and leaves 2500 people homeless.
• The Legislative Building opens on October 12. Construction cost $1.8 million. More than 30 different kinds of marble are used on stairways, walls, floors and decorative elements.

1913

• Violet McNaughton, a farm woman from Harris, becomes president of the newly formed Women Grain Growers’ Association. The WGGA takes up many causes including women’s right to vote.
  

1914

• Saskatchewan’s first hospital for the mentally ill opens in North Battleford. It has 325 patients within the first four months.
  
• The First World War begins. Over the next five years, 42,000 men and women from Saskatchewan serve in the armed forces. On the home front, farmers concentrate on growing wheat to supply the needs of the Allies. People pitch in, donating money to the Red Cross and the Canadian Patriotic Fund, and buying Victory Bonds. Women knit socks and send other comforts to soldiers overseas.
  
• The Juniata Co-operative Association, in the village of Juniata west of Saskatoon, is the first formed under Saskatchewan’s new co-operative legislation. By year’s end there are 113 new co-operatives.
  
• The Better Farming Train, a classroom on rails, is sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan, the provincial government and the railways. Travelling the province until 1922, it brings the latest in science and technology to farm families.
  
• The Rural Municipality of Sarnia, near Holdfast, agrees to pay its own doctor because local residents do not have the money for medical services. This is the first time in North America that a community hires a doctor.

1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 | 1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995