Sturgis

Sturgis Composite High School Junior Baseball Club, 1951.

Sturgis Station House Museum

Town, pop 627, located in a rolling parkland topography 10 km E of Preeceville on Hwys 9 and 49. The town is nestled between hills to the north and south and a regional park, through which the Assiniboine River flows, forms the southern boundary of the town, greatly adding to the community’s aesthetic appearance. In 1902 area townships were surveyed and opened up to homesteaders and land purchasers, and over the following few years increasing numbers of settlers came to the district from the United States, eastern Canada, England, the Scandinavian countries, Poland and Ukraine. The district was originally known as Stanhope, but when an area post office established in 1908 was given the name Sturgis, the name stuck and became that of the community. The railway arrived in 1911 and by September 3, 1912, the fledgling community had grown large enough to be incorporated as a village. Sturgis eventually became the junction of important east-west and north-south rail lines and by the 1950s the community had become the largest cattle shipping centre in the eastern area of the province. The community had population of roughly 350 at the outset of World War II, but in the post-war period, Sturgis experienced rapid growth, attaining town status in 1951. By the early 1980s, the population of the town was just shy of 800. Today, approximately 5,500 people live in the community and the surrounding region, including Preeceville. Agriculture is the major industry in the area and consists of grain production, cattle ranching, and an intensive hog operation that produces 70,000 hogs annually. Timber and logging are an important secondary industry. The Sturgis Station House Museum is located in the former 1912 Canadian Northern Railway Station. The community’s junior men’s and junior women’s lacrosse teams have won numerous medals and championships over the years. The town’s premier event is a long-running sports day and rodeo, billed as “Saskatchewan’s Largest,” which takes place on July 1 each year in a natural amphitheatre.

David McLennan