Sintaluta is a small town in Indian Head, SK Rural Municipality No. 156. The current population of Sintaluta is approximately 98 people (According the last Canadian Census done in 2006. The town is located about 85 km east of Regina

Regina, Saskatchewan

Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...

. The town is located on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

.

Demographics

In 2006, Sintaluta had a population of 98 living in 99 dwellings

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

, a 32.4% decrease from 2001. The village has a land area of 2.7 km² (1 sq mi) and a population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 36.3 /km2.

History

Sintaluta is the birthplace of noted Canadian educator Sylvia Larter and the hometown of E.A. Partridge, the "Sage of Sintaluta", the first person to establish the concept of farmer-owned grain companies on the prairies, as a result of an incident known as "The Box Car Caper" that happened in 1901 at Sintaluta. In 1901, there was a bumper crop

Bumper crop

In agriculture, a bumper crop refers to a particularly productive harvest yielded for a particular crop.Example: "With all the rain we've had over the last few months, we are expecting a bumper crop this year."...

 of wheat in the Sintaluta district. It was a good year all around for farmers as far as wheat was concerned, but their problem was getting the wheat on trains for delivery to the grain terminals. Farmers would bring their grain to the elevator and trains would leave without taking it. Some influential men of the time decided that they would take the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

 to court over this matter. One of these men was E.A. Partridge 1,2 of Sintaluta. The farmers won the case. They had made their stand at a key time, for the CPR described Sintaluta as being the largest grain shipping point at that time, in Western Canada. This was later made into a movie by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was a grain handling, agri-food processing and marketing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Pool created a network of marketing alliances in North America and internationally which made it the largest agricultural grain handling operation in the province of...

 and called The Long Haul.

The name Sintaluta comes from a Lakota language

Lakota language

Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...

 word meaning tail of the red fox.

Sintaluta was founded in 1907 and celebrated its 100th anniversary on August 3–5, 2007.

Before the Canadian Pacific Railway made its way across the west, the pioneers would stop at Sintaluta to refresh their supplies before heading west. The First Stopping House was established in Sintaluta, NWT, in 1881 by Harry Rowe. Sintaluta's first school classroom was opened up shortly after 1882.The first church was built by the Presbyterians in 1897,followed by the Methodists in 1899 and then the Anglican Church was built the same year and is a fine stone church which still stands today and is cared and maintained by the Sintaluta History Club. It was incorporated

Municipal corporation

A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...

 as a town in 1907.

Sintaluta had many firsts in its time. One such incidence is the fact that Sintaluta was the original home of "Saskatchewan House". This was what the owners of the local hotel had named their business. It was known as this in the mid 1920s.

Sintaluta was home to the founder of the current-day United Grain Growers Association (Agricore United

Agricore United

Agricore United was a farmer-directed agri-business in Canada. It supplied crop nutrition and crop protection products, and offered grain handling and marketing services. It was created on November 1, 2001 by the merger of Agricore and United Grain Growers. It was headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba...

) with prominent local residents residing on the first board of directors. The Grain Growers Guide (now The Country Guide) first editor was also from Sintaluta.

Sintaluta has had the distinction of being the largest shipping point of grain in Western Canada, and continues to produce record crops more than 100 years later.

The first section foreman for the CPR came to town in 1886. The first railway station opened here in 1898. When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, the people of the settlement soon set into action the application that this place should be incorporated into a town. This happened in the year 1907.

The town outgrew its school classroom and the first school house was a necessity and was built in 1895. In 1899 a large stone school was built. It burned down in 1905. A two-story brick school was built in 1907. The bricks were purchased locally from a factory in Lebret.

Church services were held in the stopping house and schools until 1887, when the Presbyterian built a wooden structure, followed by a brick one built by the Methodists in 1899. St. John the Baptist Anglican Church also built a stone church and manse that is still standing today and has been carefully preserved by the local history club. In 1943, St Helene's Roman Catholic church was built. This church is still present today. In 1959, the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses built Kingdom Hall. The United Church of Canada built a modern church and education centre in the early 1960s. This is now home to the senior citizens association.

Sintaluta was home to Warden Burgess, who was the elected MLA for the constituency of Qu'Appelle-Wolseley

Qu'Appelle-Wolseley

Qu'Appelle-Wolseley is a former provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. This district was created before the 8th Saskatchewan general election in 1934 by combining the constituencies of South Qu'Appelle and Wolseley...

 in 1944. He remained active in the CCF/NDP party throughout his lifetime. He was also president/director to many boards and organizations and was even president of the South Saskatchewan Baseball league and the Regina Red Sox baseball team. Sintaluta has had a very active municipal council, and has had several long term mayors such as Bill Troughton, Ken Krausharr, David Damm and current mayor, Keith Rathgeber.

Another first for the town was when in 1945, Bell Telephone celebrated it 70th anniversary. There was a resident in town, whose name was John Miller. He was 91 years old at the time. He received a call from Paris, Ontario, that was sent by the mayor of the city. It was congratulating him on being the oldest person from Western Canada who heard the first message sent over the Bell Telephone when he was 21 years old.

Sintaluta once was home to seven elevator companies, and has the distinction as being one of the top grain-producing areas in all of Canada. There are two remaining elevators in town today, and are in the hands of private owners, two of fewer than 350 elevators that remain across the prairies today.

External links

• Sintaluta town website
• Saskatchewan City & Town Maps
• Regional GenWeb site (Southwest Region)
• Saskatchewan Gen Web - One Room School Project
• Post Offices and Postmasters - ArchiviaNet - Library and Archives Canada
• Saskatchewan Gen Web Region
• Online Historical Map Digitization Project
• GeoNames Query
• 2006 Community Profiles
• Saskatchewan Cemetery Records
• http://www.saskgenealogy.com/cemetery/cem_community.aspSask Cemeteries by Community and RM RM No. 156 - INDIAN HEAD
  Indian Head No. 156, Saskatchewan
  The Rural Municipality of Indian Head No. 156 is a rural municipality in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Indian Head No. 156 is located in South East Saskatchewan, in SARM division 1.-Communities:...
  
   ]