Wood Mountain is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in Old Post Rural Municipality 43

Old Post No. 43, Saskatchewan

Old Post No. 43 is a rural municipality in southern Saskatchewan, Canada encompassing 1,757.00 square kilometers in area. The rural municipality in conjunction with the provincial government is in charge of maintenance of highways in its area...

, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The town's name is derived from the Red River

Red River of the North

The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...

 Metis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

 word "Monatagne de Bois" (meaning mountain of wood), due to the abundance of poplar trees in the otherwise barren region. Highway 18

Saskatchewan Highway 18

Highway 18 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 13 near Robsart to the Manitoba border near Gainsborough, where it becomes Highway 3. Highway 18 is about 714 km long.-Communities along the route:...

 and Highway 358

Saskatchewan Highway 358

Highway 358 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 10 near Herbert to Highway 43. Highway 358 is about 140 km long....

 intersect south of the community.

Wood Mountain is known for its annual Stampede that has been held every year for more than 120 years. It is also known for its Sprinkle Fresh Spring Water taken from the Flowing Springs Ranch.

History

History taken from: Wood Mountain, SK: Our History

Wood Mountain's first Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an settlers came in the 1870s, when about 35 Metis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

 families moved here after the failure of the Red River Rebellion

Red River Rebellion

The Red River Rebellion or Red River Resistance was the sequence of events related to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by the Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Settlement, in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba.The Rebellion was the first crisis...

. Boundary Commission survey teams came through shortly after to mark the 49th parallel

49th parallel north

The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean....

. They built the cabins that in 1874 became the first Wood Mountain North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) post. Chasing out the whiskey traders

Rum-running

Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...

 didn't take long, and the post was closed the next year.

Today Wood Mountain is a peaceful area, but during the days of Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...

 and James Walsh

James Morrow Walsh

James Morrow Walsh, was a North West Mounted Police officer and the first Commissioner of the Yukon Territory....

 this was one of the most politically volatile spots in North America. The famous Sioux

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 medicine man Sitting Bull and as many as 5000 of his Sioux (Lakota) followers took refuge here from the U.S. Army after the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...

 in 1876. General George Custer

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...

 and his Seventh Cavalry were virtually wiped out when they foolishly attacked the Sioux, and the Canadian government was concerned that Sitting Bull might attack Canadians.

NWMP Superintendent James Walsh, commanding officer of Fort Walsh

Fort Walsh

Fort Walsh is a National Historic Site of Canada that was a North-West Mounted Police fort and the site of the Cypress Hills Massacre. Administered by Parks Canada, it forms a constituent part of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park....

 in the Cypress Hills, was sent to lay down the law to the Sioux. Walsh earned Sitting Bull's respect when he rode into the intimidating camp, with only a handful of constables. Sitting Bull agreed to respect Canadian laws and within months of that agreement, a new Wood Mountain detachment was constructed for 22 NWMP officers. Walsh had a home for himself built nearby and spent most of his time in the Wood Mountain region until he was transferred to Fort Qu'Appelle in 1880. The Sioux kept their promise to abide by Canadian law, but the Canadian government never granted them permanent status. By 1879 the Sioux were beginning to starve because of fires set in the U.S. that kept the buffalo south of the border. The U.S. government offered amnesty and food to the Sioux, so many of them left while only a few hundred remained in Canada with Sitting Bull. Jean-Louis Legare, a trader from the Willow Bunch

Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan

Willow Bunch is a small community located in south central Saskatchewan, Canada southwest of the provincial capital of Regina. The population is 431, with 151 being declared as francophones....

 area, spent a great deal of effort and supplies to feed the starving Sioux.

After Legare's effort was exhausted, Sitting Bull realized he had been defeated and returned to the U.S. with a few more of his people. Not all of the Sioux left though, and their decedents still live in the area to this day. After returning to the States, Sitting Bull appeared in Buffalo Bill Cody's

Buffalo Bill

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...

 Wild West Show. Although Sitting Bull was guaranteed by the U.S. government that he would not be harmed, in 1890 he was arrested on a trumped-up charge. His followers tried to rescue him and shooting ensued. Sitting Bull was wounded twice before he was fatally clubbed by soldiers and police. A monument to Sitting Bull has been placed at the top of a hill in Wood Mountain Regional Park.

Saskatchewan may not be well known for its hills, but it does have them. In fact the Wood Mountain Hills 20 km south of the village, known locally as the "Bench", are the second highest area in Western Canada

Western Canada

Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...

 east of the Rockies

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 (First are the Cypress Hills). The Badlands

Badlands

A badlands is a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...

, which are south-east of Wood Mountain and near the town of Rockglen

Rockglen, Saskatchewan

Rockglen, Saskatchewan, Canada, is a community in the Burning Hills of the Wood Mountain Uplands, providing a school, community hall, public library and five parks, as well a local service industry. The municipal office of Rural Municipality #12 Old Post lies within the boundaries of Rockglen, and...

, were a hideout for many famous horse and cattle thieves and rum-runners, before the NWMP started patrolling and securing the Canada / U.S.A. border along the 49th parallel. Comedian Tom Green

Tom Green

Michael Thomas "Tom" Green is a Canadian actor, rapper, writer, comedian, talk show host and media personality. Best known for his shock humour brand of comedy, Green found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show...

 toured the Badlands around Big Beaver for a TV show in 2007.

As more people moved onto the prairies at the turn of the 20th century, farming and ranching changed the landscape. Where there once were buffalo, cattle became the dominant grazing animal, and cereal grains were grown where once short grass prairie was all the eye could see. Farming and ranching play a big role in the lives of the residents of the Prairies, and across the world as well because Saskatchewan agriculture feeds a large portion of the world.

The town was moved 8 km north from the site of the two police posts, as the branch line

Branch line

A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...

 railway spread through the province. Several grain elevator

Grain elevator

A grain elevator is a tower containing a bucket elevator, which scoops up, elevates, and then uses gravity to deposit grain in a silo or other storage facility...

s were built to store the crops being grown; Federal, Reliance (Pioneer), and 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...

. There is only one elevator left in Wood Mountain today; the elevator is not in operation. The brown Pioneer elevator, which was built by the Saskatchewan Pool in 1928, is one of Saskatchewan's oldest wooden elevators standing today. The Village of Wood Mountain hopes to eventually purchase the elevator, and turn the elevator into a working museum. The operation of the elevator is preserved on film by the National Film Board's "Grain Elevator" (1981) and again on "Death of a Skyline".

On July 31, 1997, the last orange Pioneer elevator in town was struck twice by lightning. Fire fighting crews could not get their equipment up the narrow opening to the top of the elevator, so the fire spread. The elevator was scheduled to close permanently on the day it burned down. Fire fighting crews were called in from neighboring towns by the Wood Mountain Volunteer Fire Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

. They helped save a house that had burning debris dropping onto it. The fire burned for hours, and the grain smoldered for days which gave the town an aroma of burnt bread for a while. Strangely, on the same day as the fire in Wood Mountain a brand new elevator in Brooks, Alberta met the same fiery fate.

More recently, Wood Mountain has hosted several successful Country and Rock music events, continued its annual Stampede, and have made improvements to the Regional and Provincial Historic Parks. The Wood Mountain Farmer's Market started by Judy Mergel, has been held in August since 2004.

In July 2005, the Village celebrated its 75th year. A monument to local organizations was erected beside the Hotel building, and the MLA and Mayor were on hand to present local citizens with awards. Among them was Robert Shields, Wood Mountain's centenarian

Centenarian

A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...

 (seen in the old photo to the left). Bob spent the last 6 years of his life in Rockglen, Saskatchewan

Rockglen, Saskatchewan

Rockglen, Saskatchewan, Canada, is a community in the Burning Hills of the Wood Mountain Uplands, providing a school, community hall, public library and five parks, as well a local service industry. The municipal office of Rural Municipality #12 Old Post lies within the boundaries of Rockglen, and...

, turning 105 in October 2009, and passed away not long after.

Demographics

In 2006, Wood Mountain had a population of 20 living in 13 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 -50.0% decrease from 2001. The village had a land area of 0.61 km² (0.235522316741446 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 32.6 /km2.

Economy and tourism

Historically, Wood Mountain's economy has relied mainly on agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 as a main industry. The community still has strong roots to farming and ranching, but with its location and rich history, tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 has become a main industry. The community has a variety of businesses, recreation

Recreation

Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...

 sites, and many accommodations such as bed and breakfast

Bed and breakfast

A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

s, a cafe restaurant, a pool, a library, a community hall, and a wide variety of churches, museums, campgrounds, and regional parks.

Business and services

Below is a list of local business and organizations within the Wood Mountain.

• Alliance church
• Roman Catholic Church
• Romanian Orthodox Church
• Transfiguration of Our Lord Church
• Wood Mountain 4-H Club
• Klein Electronics
• Straza Trucking
• Whitemud kaolin mining (closed as of late 2010)
• Hog Barn
• Jody's JH Quarter Circle Restaurant (closed as of late 2010)
• Mergel Ranch
• Flowing Springs Ranch
  • Sprinkle Fresh Spring Water

Local attractions

• Wood Mountain Community Pool
• Wood Mountain Regional Park
• Wood Mountain Rodeo & Ranching Museum
• Wood Mountain Post Historic Park

Events

• Wood Mountain Stampede, oldest continuous annual Rodeo in Canada. It has run since 1890.
• Wood Mountain Farmers Market
• Redneck Rumble

Regional attractions/accommodations

• Grasslands National Park
  Grasslands National Park
  Grasslands National Park is one of Canada's newer national parks, located in southern Saskatchewan, and one of 43 parks and park reserves in Canada's national park system...
  
  
• Crossing Resort
• Glentworth Bar and Hotel
• Limerick Bar and Hotel
• St. Victor's Petroglyphs Provincial Historic Park
• Thomson Lake Regional Park

Notable citizens

• Clair Fitzpatrick, 1996 Canadian High School Rodeo Saddle Bronc Champion.
• Mark Roy
• Carl Olson

External links

• Village of Wood Mountain website
• Municipal Affairs - Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan
• Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan - Wood Mountain