| Maple Creek | |
| Official Name: | Town of Maple Creek |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Motto: | "Where Past Is Present" |
| Pushpin Map: | Saskatchewan#CAN SK Maple Creek |
| Coordinates: | 49.9058°N -109.4794°W |
| Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Saskatchewan |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Type4: | Rural municipality |
| Subdivision Name4: | Maple Creek |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Michelle McKenzie |
| Leader Title1: | Town Manager |
| Leader Name1: | Barry Elliott, CAO |
| Leader Title2: | Governing body |
| Leader Name2: | Maple Creek Town Council |
| Leader Title3: | MP |
| Leader Title4: | MLA |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Established Date: | 1882 |
| Established Title2: | Incorporated (village) |
| Established Date2: | 1896 |
| Established Title3: | Incorporated (town) |
| Established Date3: | April 30, 1903 |
| Area Land Km2: | 4.42 |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Total: | 2,084 |
| Population Density Km2: | 471.3 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | National Population Rank (Out of 5,008) |
| Timezone: | CST |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | S0N 1N0 |
| Area Code: | 306 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank Info: | Highway 21 Highway 271 Highway 724 |
| Blank1 Name: | Railways |
| Blank1 Info: | Canadian Pacific |
| Blank2 Name: | Climate |
| Blank2 Info: | BSk |
| Website: | maplecreek.ca |
| Footnotes: | [2] [3] |
Maple Creek is a town in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan, Canada. It is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Maple Creek No. 111. The population was 2,176 at the 2021 Census.
The town is southeast of Medicine Hat, Alberta, and north of the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on Highway 21 and south of the Trans-Canada Highway. Maple Creek runs along the west side of town.
The administrative headquarters of the Nekaneet Cree Nation is 37km (23miles) southeast of Maple Creek.[4]
After the North-West Mounted Police had been established at Fort Walsh, settlers began to explore the Cypress Hills area, living along the creeks and doing small-scale ranching. The Department of the Interior was operating a First Nations farm on the Maple Creek, a few miles south from the present town site. In 1882-1883 the First Nations (mainly Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine) were moved to Qu'Appelle, and the farm was then operated by Major Shurtleff, an ex-Mounted Policeman, and George Wood, his brother-in-law.
In the winter of 1882, a Canadian Pacific Railway construction crew of 12 decided to winter where the town of Maple Creek now stands. This marked the establishment of Maple Creek.[5]
In June 2010, a flood submerged some of the town when Maple Creek overflowed its banks. The same flood hit much of southwestern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta and even destroyed a portion of the Trans-Canada Highway.[6]
There are two designated municipal heritage Properties in Maple Creek:
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Maple Creek had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 4.35km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[9]
| Population by ethnic origin, 2011 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnic group[10] | Population | Percent | |
| 1,780 | |||
| Other North American | 630 | ||
| 140 | |||
| 50 | |||
| 25 | |||
| Latin, Central and South American | 20 | ||
| 15 | |||
| Total respondent population | 2175 | 100% | |
Maple Creek experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). With the exception of southwestern Alberta, winters in Maple Creek are typically warmer than those in the adjacent plain region of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, being a convergence point for Chinook winds originating along the Rocky Mountain Front. The mean maximum temperature in January 2006 was 5.3 °C https://archive.today/20121216052100/http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climateData/monthlydata_e.html?timeframe=3&Prov=CA&StationID=10667&Year=2006&Month=8&Day=2 for the Maple Creek townsite, compared to 5.0 °C https://archive.today/20121216052602/http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climateData/monthlydata_e.html?timeframe=3&Prov=CA&StationID=2205&Year=2006&Month=8&Day=2 for Calgary and 4.7 °C https://archive.today/20121216023708/http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climateData/monthlydata_e.html?timeframe=3&Prov=CA&StationID=2273&Year=2006&Month=8&Day=2 for Medicine Hat.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Maple Creek was 41C on 29 June 1984. The coldest temperature ever recorded was -46.7C on 15 & 16 February 1936.[11]
The Sidney Street School[15] and the Maple Creek Composite School[16] serve the local community.
Great Plains College operates a satellite campus in Maple Creek.