Goodwater (2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Lomond No. 37 and Census Division No. 2. The village is located approximately south of the city of Weyburn.
History
Goodwater incorporated as a village on May 8, 1911. Goodwater's first village council was held on August 7, 1911. In 2011, Goodwater celebrated its 100-year anniversary from July 22–24 with a three-day event that included singing, two pancake breakfasts, an antique machinery show, and a performance by the BAD Boys.
Name According to several sources, Goodwater was once called "Juell", prior to the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway Company, 1909–1911. Families named Juell were among the first homesteaders in the area 1902, immigrating from Norway by way of the United States. The creek south of town is known as Juell Creek. Citing research undertaken using the database of Canadian federal ridings since 1867, the genealogical website project Saskatchewan GenWeb states: "There were a few homesteaders living near here under the name "Juell": George L Juell, NE 16-5-13-W2; John Juell, Jr., NE 20-5-1-W2; Chris Ceverian Juell, NW 20-5-1-W2; Sigurd John K Juell, SE 20-5-1-W2; and, John Peter Ludwig Juell, SW 20-5-13-W2."
The Saskatchewan GenWeb project highlights a 1914 reproduction of a Canada Department of Mines map of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, which clearly shows a town "Juell" in the same general area as current-day Goodwater.
The Albert and Edith Lyons entry by "family members" in the 1980 community history, Prairie Gold, recounts the family's 1904 relocation from Boissevain, Manitoba: "The Lyons family sought greener pastures and migrated further west to Jewelltown, North West Territories, later known as Goodwater, Sask."
Like many Saskatchewan place names, the straightforward explanation of Goodwater's current-day name originates with Canadian Northern Railway surveyors. According to a collectively-researched 1968 publication on Saskatchewan place name origins, CNoR surveyors encountered difficulty in finding water while approaching Juell, but when they eventually did, "they struck it at 12 feet—good water and in abundance."
Early businesses
The village was first surveyed in 1910, however several businesses already existed, including: Kelly and Hobbs general store (a tent); Ralph Graville's cafe; Mr. Pepper's blacksmith shop; and the Stirton and McIntyre hardware store. As early as 1914, a branch location of the Standard Bank of Canada existed in Goodwater; by 1936 the bank closed.
General store Arthur Kelly (b. 1850, Devonshire, England) and William "Billie" Hobbs first established their general store in a tent in 1910, selling "everything from needles to threshing machines". In 1925, Arthur Kelly sold his interest in the general store to Billie Hobbs who, in 1933, sold the general store to Kelly's son, Arthur Kelly, Jr. Third-generation Clair Arthur Kelly took over the general store (and served as Postmaster), later selling it in 1953 to Norman Lucas who ran the store and served as Postmaster until 1960.
Stirton and McIntyre Hardware Store The Stirton and McIntyre Hardware Store was begun in 1910 by US immigrant Edward McIntyre, Percy Speers, and Boissevain tinsmith Arthur Stinton. By 1912 Stirton and McIntyre handled farm insurance and loans, and dealt in farm implements for John Deere and the International Harvester Company. The hardware store closed in 1938, when Edward McIntyre left Goodwater with his family for British Columbia, during an economically difficult time in the Goodwater community.
Railway (1910–1979) Established in 1899, the Canadian Northern Railway was formed out of the bankruptcy of the regional Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company—a local 27-kilometre "branch line" between Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba (and, later, Portage La Prairie) in Manitoba. Donald Mann and William Mackenzie, both former employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), purchased the defunct LMR&CC and rebranded it as the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) with the vision to compete with the CPR by consolidating and constructing alternative "branch lines" serving communities outside the CPR's transcontinental lines.
By 1911, the CNoR was reported to be constructing 300 miles of new rail lines in Saskatchewan, employing 500 teams and 2,500 men. Construction for a new branch line from Luxton to Ceylon, serving Colgate and Goodwater along the way, was authorized in 1908. This branch line was initially begun in 1909 from the main CNoR line at Maryfield, Saskatchewan, just west of the Manitoba border, and is sometimes referred to as the "Maryfield Extension". According to train historian Adam Peltenburg, the CNoR rail line branch through Goodwater was part of, "major developments in the prairies" that began around 1910. In 1911, the trade publication, Daily Consular and Trade Reports, wrote that, "one of the most important of the new lines now under construction in that province is the Maryfield extension, to be carried through the coal fields to Lethbridge, Alberta". Several community accounts report that surveyors of the CNoR were responsible for renaming the town from "Juell" to "Goodwater," 1910–1011.
The 89-mile branch line from Luxton to Ceylon was officially completed and opened for traffic on July 11, 1911.
The Luxton to Ceylon branch line through Goodwater was reportedly a "busy line" with numerous trains daily, including passenger trains in both directions running six days a week (except Sunday) from 1914 to 1921. In one published community history anecdote, CNoR train engineer Dalrymple made the Carlyle-to-Radville segment in "a record time of a little over two hours...[making all the stops]," during which his "trainmen on the back of the caboose nervously held on to the "air" and in chorus, uttered a prayer on the Goodwater hill."
The Canadian Northern Railway was absorbed into other railway interests of the Canadian federal government on September 6, 1918, when mounting debt and the realities of profit-lean World War I caused Donald Mann and William Mackenzie to resign as CNoR directors.
Severe winter blizzard weather and snow accumulation during the winter of 1946–47 caused over sixteen days of isolation with no train service or supplies to Goodwater, as well as many other southern Saskatchewan towns. In January, 1947, the Canadian Press reported that "five feet of hard-packed snow covered tracks and some drifts were estimated to be 28 feet high" in Goodwater. On January 22, then-general store merchant, and future Goodwater Postmaster, Clair Archibald Kelly stated that the shortage of coal would be "serious" if Goodwater were forced to wait another day for supplies. The only road open in southern Saskatchewan was the road between Regina and Yorkton, and no trains passed through Goodwater from January 11 until January 24.
During the spring of 1948, flood waters damaged the rail lines between Goodwater and Blewett. According to company records, the Canadian National Railway wrote off a 22.39 mile abandonment during 1948-1952 for the flood-damaged track between Goodwater and Blewett. With the closure of the Goodwater to Blewett section, trains ran only from Radville and Goodwater, then turned back to Radville. Into the 1950s, passenger service declined further and by 1959 regular train service ceased, with train service occurring only for grain cars as needed.
In 1976, local communities including Goodwater filed petition briefs to the Hall Commission on Grain Handling and Transportation, demanding "retention and protection of the rail lines and the rural elevator system". Canadian National Railway ultimately decided to abandon the Radville to Goodwater line, and on December 13, 1979, the final train left Goodwater.
Post office George William Thackeray operated the Thacker Post Office located at Sec. 35, Twp. 5, R. 14, W2 as early as December 1907. This post office closed on November 27, 1911. Thackeray hauled mail from Halbrite, Saskatchewan.
The Goodwater Post Office opened in 1911 and closed in 1985.
"Hot and Dirty Thirties" The period of the Great Depression significantly impacted the Goodwater community. According to community historian Thelma Ror, in 1936 the bank closed—"quite a blow to the area at the time," and the "hot and dirty thirties...were years of struggle for the town council; taxes were not paid, money had to be borrowed to keep the school operating, and many that were in dire need were given relief vouchers." Significant heat and drought severely affected the agricultural community, along with grasshoppers. Verna Berg, niece of early area businessman Arthur Kelly (of Kelly & Hobbs General Store), writes of the 1930s: "As the soil dried up from lack of rain and the wind blew, we had dust storms so bad you couldn't see across the street. [...] Many people gave up trying to farm or just exist, so, loading up what belongings they could on a wagon, and tying a cow or two behind, they headed for greener pastures, usually Northern Sask. or east to Manitoba. Those that stayed behind and had cattle, took them to the hay fields in Southern Manitoba. The story goes that the cattle had been so used to eating Russian thistle that when they got good hay, they wouldn't eat it." By early 1938, it was reported that 30% of horses in the Goodwater area were "either sick, dying or dead of starvation," and an examination of horse corpses revealed that, "dirt, sand and sharp Russian thistle had been consumed by the animals, and internal organs were as delicate as "tissue paper,"." A petition signed by Goodwater farmers was submitted to the United Farmers of Canada, appealing to the provincial government to supply feed, oats, and hay to affected communities.
Agricultural industry From its origins, Goodwater has long been a community organized around agricultural grain and livestock production.
Crop yields in 1921 reported fall rye yielding 44 bushels per acre, with spring rye yielding between 20 and 30 bushels.
Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company, Local No. 6 By 1913, Goodwater had two grain elevators: the Johnson & Co. Ltd. elevator with an estimated capacity of 25,000 bushels, and the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator Company elevator with an estimated capacity of 30,000 bushels. Goodwater was Local No. 6 of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company, Limited, and its 1919 representative delegate was W. J. Pepper. By 1975, both grain elevators in Goodwater were owned by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool; Elevator A had a capacity of 91,000 bushels and Elevator B had a capacity of 26,000 bushels.
Lomond 4-H Club The Lomond Calf Club was organized in the fall of 1939 by Scotch-born Alexander J. (Sandy) McKenzie, and held its first "achievement day" at the outdoor ice rink in the summer of 1940. Writing in a 1923 issue of The Grain Grower's Guide for an article on raising fowl, Alexander J. (Sandy) McKenzie lamented, "Much has been done for the cow and her products in the way of markets. We have a market for dairy products in Saskatchewan as good as any in the Dominion, but what have we got for the hen? Twenty thousand pounds of beeves costs us $64 to market, while the same weight of hens costs us nearly $900."
Geography
Located along the Souris River, the Goodwater community is located less than 10 km from Mainprize Regional Park and its Rafferty Dam Reservoir.
North-West Mounted Police 'March West'