PIONEERING ROMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 773, 23 March 1910, Page 5

PIONEERING ROMANCE.

THE BIRTH OF A TOWN IN WEST CANADA. Six years ago, under the leadership of a Mi.' Barr, a party of British emigrants with their wives and. children sailed in the C.P.E.. &s. Lake Manitoba, with a view to settling in ■ Western Canada. Saskatoon was tho most westerly point they could then reach by rail, and m order to settle on the land- allotted to them by the Canadian Government the party had to trek two'hundred miles further west. This journey was accomplished under great difficulties in oxwagons, the progress averaging about fifteen miles a day. Very soon tho Canadian Northern Railway surveyed .a line from Saskatoon to Edmonton, and the inexperienced but willing settlers set to work making the track and laying the rails. This brought a little money into the colony. Meanwhile provisions had to bo freighted by oxen two hundred miles across the prairie from Saskatoon; the price of flour was as high as £2 per cwt, and everything elso in proportion. The name of Lloydminster was chosen for their town, in honour of their first minister, Archdeacon Lloyd. To-day, through their grit and determination to succeed, the town is one of the most important ...between Saskatoon and Edmonton. It boasts of three hotels, two banks, two elevators, an electrio power-house, and a Mayor and corporation. Geographically the town stands in a unique position, one-half being, in the province of Alberta and the other in Saskatchewan. The Alberta side is called the village, and has a separate Board of Control, unlike the Saskatchewan side,, which is governed by a Mayor and corporation. The railway station is in Alberta and the post office in Saskatchewan, and the two sides are divided by the fourth meridian line. The church was erected 'and built entirely of logs cut and, hauled by tho members of the settlement, and stands this day, although energy is being directed towards a new brick building with a larger 6eating capacity.