Bredenbury

Canadian Pacific Railway yards, Bredenbury. Photograph taken July 12, 2004.

David McLennan

Town, pop 354, located roughly halfway between Yorkton and the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba border on the Yellowhead Hwy (No. 16). The district began to be settled in the 1880s, mainly by people of British and Icelandic origin. The Manitoba and Northwestern Railway (later taken over by the CPR) came through en route to Yorkton in the late 1880s, and by May 1911 Bredenbury had grown large enough to be incorporated as a village; two years later, the community attained town status. Major employers are the CPR in Bredenbury, and the IMC Kalium potash mines near Esterhazy. A manufacturer of semi-trailers provides additional employment, and the district surrounding Bredenbury sustains a combination of crop and livestock production. Many residents of the community also commute to work in Yorkton, and in recent decades Bredenbury has become somewhat of a bedroom community. Children attend school in Saltcoats until Grade 8, and then travel to Yorkton for high school. A nine-hole Golf course is maintained by local volunteers, and Bredenbury is well known for its elaborate displays during the Christmas season.

David McLennan