Saltcoats is a town in east-central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

near the Manitoba border in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The town's population was 474 in 2011. The town was built in the late 19th century, and its economy was driven by the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

. There is no longer passenger service to the town.

History

The community was established in 1887, just before the arrival of the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway in 1888; a post office was opened when rail service began. In 1894, Saltcoats was the first

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

incorporated in the

North-West Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

as they then were. The town was originally named 'Stirling', but when the railway arrived the name was changed to Saltcoats, after

Saltcoats Saltcoats ( gd, Baile an t-Salainn) is a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is derived from the town's earliest industry when salt was harvested from the sea water of the Firth of Clyde, carried out in small cottages al ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, the birthplace of a major railway shareholder and the home port of Allen Steam-ship Lines which brought over many of the immigrants from the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

that settled in the region. In 1902, 208 Welsh settlers (44 families) fleeing unfavourable conditions in Welsh Patagonia came to Saltcoats, but within a generation their community lost its cultural cohesion and melted into the English-speaking cultural matrix.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Saltcoats had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Government

;Provincial representation * Melville - Saltcoats Riding -

Bob Bjornerud Bob Bjornerud (born September 8, 1945) is a Canadian provincial politician. He was the member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for the constituency of Melville-Saltcoats from 1995 to 2016, first as a member of the Liberal Party and la ...

Saskatchewan Party The Saskatchewan Party is a centre-right political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Since 2007, it has been the province's governing party; both the party and the province are currently led by Premier Scott Moe. The party was esta ...

Federal representation * Yorkton Riding - Gary Breitkreuz -

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

Media

The Four-Town Journal covers Saltcoats and area.

Notable people

*The Honourable

Gordon Barnhart Gordon Leslie Barnhart (born January 22, 1945) is a former Clerk of the Senate of Canada and the Saskatchewan Legislature, as well as former Secretary of the University of Saskatchewan. He was the 20th Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan fr ...

: Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan (2007–2012) *The Very Reverend Walter H. Farquharson: internationally noted hymnodist; former moderator of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

Ron Liepert Ronald Liepert (born October 8, 1949) is a Canadian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament for Calgary Signal Hill in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Cabinet of Alberta as Minister of Finance, Energy, Heal ...

, broadcaster, member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from singl ...

, Alberta cabinet minister,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Joan McCusker Joan McCusker (born June 8, 1965 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan as Joan Elizabeth Inglis) is a Canadian curler and Olympic gold medallist. Career McCusker's greatest successes in curling came during the years she played second on the team of Sand ...

: gold medallist in

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

(

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

)

References

{{SKDivision5 Towns in Saskatchewan Populated places established in 1887 Saltcoats No. 213, Saskatchewan Division No. 5, Saskatchewan