Meath Park

Village, pop 179 (2006c), 204 (2001c), is located approximately 40 km northeast of Prince Albert near the junctions of Hwys 55, 120, and 355. The origins of Meath Park were about six and a half kilometres south of the community’s present location—the first Meath Park post office was established in 1913 on NW7-51-23-W2. While the first settlers in the district included people of British origins—the name Meath Park is derived from that of the county of Meath in Ireland—the area was most significantly settled by people of Ukrainian and Polish stock, who began to arrive in 1906-07. In the early 1930s, as the railway was being built to link Prince Albert with Nipawin, the CPR established a location for a station at the present village site, and the name Meath Park was eventually adopted for the community that sprang up at the locale. The old Meath Park post office was renamed Janow Corners in 1938, the same year as the Village of Meath Park was incorporated. The community developed as a service centre for the surrounding agricultural district, and its population grew from 130 in 1941 to a peak of 298 in 1976. The population has subsequently steadily declined, and in the 1990s the rail line through the community was abandoned. Now, no Grain Elevators are left standing in the village. Meath Park School, however, remains a key community institution. It is a K-12 facility which had 328 students enrolled in the fall of 2006. The village also retains a small core of businesses which includes a grocery store, a tavern, a credit union, and the post office. The former CPR railway station, now a heritage property, houses a restaurant. Today, Meath Park residents largely access the amenities that the city of Prince Albert has to offer, and find recreational opportunities close at hand with Candle Lake Provincial Park just a short distance to the north, and PRINCE ALBERT NATIONAL PARK not far to the northwest. An annual community event held in the village is the Meath Park Polka Festival, which takes place in August. Meath Park serves as the administrative centre of the RM of Garden River No. 490.

David McLennan