Ceylon

Village, pop 105, located on Hwy 6, 110 km due S of Regina, and 50 km N of the Canada-US border. The first homesteaders began arriving in the area in 1905, although it was not until the railroad was being built through the district in 1910 that Ceylon had its beginnings. A number of Ceylon’s standing architectural landmarks, including the hotel built in 1912, date to the community’s early years. In 1922, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 27, the most notorious event in the village’s history occurred: armed thieves used explosives and a fast get-away car to rob the Bank of Montreal of about $16,000 worth of cash, securities, and bonds. One theory is that the thieves knew the bank’s vault would house the proceeds of the illegal liquor trade going on in the area at the time. The brazenness of the theft and the fact that the Union Bank in Moosomin had been robbed the same night caused news of the robberies to capture provincial headlines for days. In quieter times, Ceylon serves as a trading centre for the surrounding mixed farming and Ranching district. A small percentage of the area economy relates to oil and gas development.

David McLennan