Town, pop 2,129, located about 90 km SW of Saskatoon and 30 km downstream from the Gardiner Dam on the E side of the South Saskatchewan River. The community is served by Hwy 15. Settlers had begun entering the district in the early 1900s, a few years before the CPR announced it would be developing a townsite above the river. On August 26, 1908, in advance of the coming railroad, the townsite lots were put up for sale. The railway named the location Outlook for its spectacular vantage over the river valley. Within a month, a sizable community had come into existence. On November 23, the first train rolled into Outlook, and on December 19, 1908, the new community was legally established as a village; it attained town status on November 1, 1909. Within five months, however, on March 20, 1910, residents were standing in the streets staring at smouldering ruins: a fire had claimed a good portion of the business district. The community rebuilt, so that by 1911 the population had reached 685. In 1912, the railway bridge was completed across the river. The Depression took its toll on the area: Outlook’s population fell by more than 200 over the decade. Subsequently, Outlook and area residents were at the forefront of the campaign for the construction of a dam across the South Saskatchewan River. Today, the district has a diversified agricultural base producing sunflowers, corn, potatoes, and vegetables, in addition to more traditional crops. The Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre, located on the outskirts of the town, is a major leading research facility that promotes crop diversification and sustainable irrigation practices. The community’s main attraction is the Sky Trail, part of the Trans Canada Trail and Canada’s longest pedestrian bridge; it spans the former 1912 CPR railway bridge, which had been closed for a number of years. Beginning in September, 2003, the 33rd Field Engineer Squadron from Calgary began work on the bridge’s refurbishment; the work was done under a national “Bridges for Canada” program which celebrated the centennial of the military engineers. Crossing more than a kilometre of river at a height of close to 48 metres (156 feet), the bridge was officially re-opened to pedestrian traffic by the Honourable Dr. Lynda Haverstock, Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, on May 15, 2004.
David McLennan