Harrowsmith Country Life
April 2000
My Kind of Town
Our third annual toast to ten of the prettiest towns in the country.

Wolseley
by Margaret Hryniuk

Tourists breezing through Saskatchewan may not only remember Wolseley as the home of Weird Willie's, a convenience store on the Trans-Canada Highway.   But those who venture into the heart of this Prairie oasis will be charmed.   Its old-time appeal is partly due to the legacy of an early brickworks, which accounts for the unusually high number of great and small homes built of brick.  But there's also the turn-of-the-century commercial buildings, a canopy of shade trees and the 1885 court-house, the oldest of it's kind in the province. 

Wolseley is built around a small lake, which was once traversed by a swinging footbridge.  The bridge is gone, but plans are in the works to replace it, now that local preservation efforts have already worked their magic on the old town hall and opera house.  Pride in heritage runs deep here: back in 1906, this is the place that initiated the ritual of ringing in the New Year with town bells.   The tradition lives on today.

Founded as Wolf Creek in 1882

Population 825

Urban Escape Regina 100 km

Climate Bracing

Garden Zone 2B

Real Estate A steady demand, but still a bargain by most standards.  An average house goes for about $60,000 and the market tops out at about $110,000.

Claims to Fame Beaver Lumber started here; This is as far as Col. Garnet Wolseley's 700 troops marched before Louis Riel fled to the U.S. in 1870.

Last Word The locals are forever thankful the the CPR dammed the river - the railway needed a reservoir for its steam engine - and created such a picturesque setting for small-town life.