Scott

Town, pop 110, located SW of Wilkie. The area was first settled around 1905; a significant number of those who came to the region were of German Catholic origin, and mostly from Russia. With the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway through the area, the townsite developed. Scott was incorporated as a village in 1908 and attained town status in 1910. The community was named for Frank Scott, a railway company treasurer. The 1911 Census recorded a population of 420—the largest the community would ever have. Although the population hovered between 200 and 300 from the 1920s to the early 1970s, by the early 1950s the town’s commercial sector had been reduced to a handful of establishments, superseded by the business communities in nearby Wilkie or Unity. Over the past few decades, the community’s numbers have plummeted. Scott is notable for the experimental farm established in the early 1900s; the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada operation focuses on research related to oilseeds and cereal crops in the northwestern region of Saskatchewan.

David McLennan