Beaver Hills (Saskatchewan) Explained

51.3°N -103.4343°W

The Beaver Hills^[1] are a range of hills located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Yorkton is situated approximately 35 miles south-east of the hills.

The Whitesand River, a tributary of the Assiniboine River, originates in the Beaver Hills.^[2]

Large areas of native grasslands and shrubs can still be found in the Beaver Hills region, and along the Whitesand River.^[3] The hills are well-adapted for stock raising.^[4]

History

Early colonization of the hills included a colony of three to four hundred Dakotans at Sheho, Saskatchewan. Disappointment at the lack of the promised transcontinental rail line caused these numbers to dwindle to just a few^[5] by the late 1800s.

In 1897^[6] the first Galician (Ukrainian) colony in Canada, consisting of 511 families, was established at Beaver Hills.^[7]

In 1903 telephone service was extended to Beaver Hills.^[8] The towns of Ituna, Saskatchewan^[9] and Kelliher, Saskatchewan^[10] are located in the Beaver Hills.

A large boulder with a carved face petroglyph was found on December 25, 1905 by Charles Noddings from the Beaver Hills area, and was the stimulus for the creation of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in 1906.^[11]

Bernard Leo Korchinski, Liberal member for the provincial riding of Redberry from 1948–1952 and 1956–1960, was born in the Beaver Hills in 1905.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Beaver Hills. Canadian Geographical Names Database . Government of Canada . 19 May 2022.
2. http://www.swa.ca/Publications/Documents/AssiniboineRiverWatershedSourceWaterProtectionPlan.pdf Assiniboine River Watershed Source Water Protection Plan
3. https://www.gov.mb.ca/waterstewardship/reports/planning_development/uarb_report.pdf Upper Assiniboine River Basin Study
4. https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury00canauoft Twentieth century Canada and atlas of Western Canada, for the guidance of intending settlers--its resources and development, with maps of the Dominion of Canada, provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta.
5. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cansk/SaskatchewanAndItsPeople/Volume2/smaller.html
6. Web site: The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan . 2008-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090228112539/http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/ukrainian_settlements.html . 2009-02-28 . dead .
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=1eEIrDcLUEYC Folk Furniture of Canada's Doukhobors, Hutterites, Mennonites and Ukrainians
8. Web site: City of Yorkton . 2008-12-28 . 2008-12-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081206064111/http://www.yorkton.ca/history/earlystory/ . dead .
9. http://www.bartelby.org/69/77/I02477.html The Columbia gazetteer of North America.
10. http://www.bartelby.com/69/55/K02855.html The Columbia gazetteer of North America.
11. Web site: Royal Saskatchewan Museum . 2008-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081224134356/http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/about/museum_history.shtml . 2008-12-24 . dead .
12. Web site: The Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Saskatchewan Provincial Council . 2008-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090217041935/http://www.ucc.sk.ca/programs/nbuilders/2000/index.html . 2009-02-17 . dead .