Centennial stories

One century ago, Weyburn was touted as "the Commercial Metropolis of Southern Saskatchewan" with a population of 5,000 and an assessment (for that day) worth $9,670,000.

In a pamphlet printed the year Weyburn became a city, by the Leroux Realty Company, the city was touted as a growing and active city described as the "only point west of the City of Winnipeg (that) can be found in a junctional point where Canadian and American roads meet."

The exuberant description of Weyburn wasn't too far off, as in the year 2013, when Weyburn is marking its centennial as a city, it continues to hold the distinction as Canada's largest inland grain-gathering point.

In addition, it's near the burgeoning Bakken zone and the Weyburn Field for the southeast oil industry, with a population just over double that of a century ago.

The city of a
century ago

Take a look at the list of the commercial concerns that Weyburn boasted of in the year we became a city: six banks, six grain elevators, four schools, six churches, six lumber yards, four hotels, 20 wholesalers and manufacturers, 11 railroad outlets, flour mills, brick yards, sash, door and glass factory, bottling works and foundry.

Municipally, the city had its own power and light plant, five miles of sewer, seven miles of water mains, 10 miles of granolithic walks, and 12 miles of electric mains.

Today, Weyburn can boast of 100 km (62.5 miles) of roads, 88 km (55 miles) of sanitary sewer lines, 80 km (50 miles) of water mains, and 12 km (7.5 miles) of trails, 11 km paved. In addition, Weyburn has 4,250 taxable properties, of which 3,317 are residential, 509 are condos, 62 are multi-family or apartments, and 362 properties are commercial/industrial.

Like any community, however, a city is much more than a sum of its physical parts; it's the people who comprise the city, and their stories and experiences as they and their families helped the city to grow, expand and prosper.

Weyburn historian and lifelong resident Jim Nedelcov had many stories to share about interesting people of days gone by, such as "Red" McDonald.

Tales of the
Mental Hospital

"Everybody knew 'Red'; he was a great big lumbering strong man. He worked at the Mental Hospital farm, and then he'd go work for farmers. Another patient used to dress up like a Scout, and he used to go downtown and direct traffic in his Scout uniform," said Jim, adding that many of the patients who worked on the Hospital farm were allowed to have their own gardens, and they would hold market gardens along the river, selling their vegetables to area residents.

"They were allowed to keep whatever money they made from it. Some of them buried the money they got in tin cans so they wouldn't have to turn it in. They were very good at growing vegetables," he recalled.

Jim noted the Mental Hospital grounds were renowned for how meticulously kept the grounds were, and it was largely due to the yard gangs whose job it was to trim the trees, cut the grass and keep the grounds looking nice. For some of the patients who did this work, it was part of their therapy, he added, just like art was also used for some patients.

Noting how extensive the farm operations were in helping feed the hundreds and hundreds of patients and staff, he said, "It was like a city within a city. They had their own barber shop, butcher, dentist, tennis courts, hairdressers - everything," adding they also had miniature golf, a curling rink and an outdoor skating rink, and an orchestra, with dances held regularly for the residents and staff.

Jim recalled that his younger brother Ed, and a couple of his friends, built a raft and at the bend in the river where the market gardens were, they'd transport people across the river.

"It was their claim to fame. They charged the nurses to have a ride on their raft," chuckled Jim.

There also used to be a brick plant and sand pits, with channels dug in to bring in the water from the river; in the years after the plant stopped operating, it was a place for kids to go swimming, and play on the sand hills.

Life on the
Souris River

The river was also a place for skating in the winter; Jim recalled that he and his friends were allowed to hang out by the father of a friend, Buzz Bent; the dad was the station master for the CN railway station. On a Saturday they'd clear off a section of the river, and on the Sunday they'd play hockey on the river.

"I remember always the first day of skating was Remembrance Day, even if the ice could just barely hold you. Sometimes you could skate for a longer ways," he said.

Jim recalled there was an ice house just south of Water Street, owned by Fred Zabel.

"They would cut a great big chunk of ice out of the river and haul it into the ice house and embed them with sawdust; during the summer, they'd cut off chunks, using these huge ice tongs, and deliver them to houses to use in their ice box; it was before the days of refrigerators," said Jim.

As he and his brother grew up, when he was in Grades 7 and 8 he would be allowed to work with his father who ran the Star Bakery, located next to what is now the Soo Theatre downtown.

"We'd go there to help him break bubbles in the bread dough. It smelled so good when the first batch of bread came out; we'd have a slice with some nice fresh jam on it. They had a guy who delivered the bread, and another guy who made the pastries," Jim recalled. "I didn't do very well with baking, but it was a good experience for me."

One of his favourite memories involves a school that has long since been torn down: there were fire exit chutes on the old Assiniboia School, which stood where the Co-op food store is today, and Jim recalled that in winter time, he and his friends could get on a piece of cardboard or something similar, and go shooting down at high speed.

Jim chuckled as he somehow survived this lark, but it was a favourite part of a school that was formative in the heritage of Weyburn, the predecessor to today's Assiniboia Park School, which is now centre of new neighbourhoods in the fast-growing northeast corner of the city.

Sneaking into the
Hi-Art Theatre

Another long-gone part of the city's downtown was the Hi-Art Theatre, which was near what is today the RBC Bank downtown.

Jim has a memory of how he and a group of friends would sneak in to see the Saturday afternoon matinee.

"The big thing in those days was serials; it cost more than we had to get into the show, so what we would do is there'd be a group of four or five of us, and we'd chip in for one of us to have the price of admission. One guy would take the money and buy a ticket; now, on the back end by the washroom they happened to have a panic door; he'd go back there and open it, and all us kids were there and we'd crawl in to find a seat. That's how we got into the Hi-Art," recalled Jim, with a smile.

"There was an usher with a long steel flashlight, and if he every caught us, he'd give you a crack on the head with the flashlight," he said, adding another feature of the theatre was listening to Fergie Eaglesham play the piano along with the movies - in the days before 'talkies' arrived.