Yorkton, city (1991 pop. 15,315), SE Sask., Canada, NE of Regina. It is a railroad center and has large stockyards, warehouses, a flour mill, brick and cement plants, and a farm-implement plant.

Yorkton is a city in the south-east of Saskatchewan, Canada, near the Manitoba border. The Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival has been held there every year since 1947.

Statistics

History

A group of settlers from York County, Ontario, established a settlement in 1882. They had been recruited by the York Farmers Colonization Company, and originally founded York Colony about two miles north of the site of the modern city, on the banks of a small river.

The York Farmers Colonization Company, with Ontario Member of Parliament N. Clark Wallace as president, and a capital shareholders’ investment of $300,000 was incorporated May 12, 1882. Earlier in the year, a group of Toronto businessmen had met to discuss a plan to invest in the opening of lands for homesteading in Western Canada, specifically in the newly created Provisional Assiniboia, North West Territories.

During the Second World War, an airport was built north of the city for the RCAF's No. 11 Service Flying Training School, now operated as the Yorkton Municipal Airport.

Yorkton is the site of the Yorkton Western Development Museum, which houses a number of exhibits depicting pioneer life in the town and on the surrounding prairie. The museum includes an early pioneer log home and an extensive outdoor exhibit of agricultural machinery, including early tractors and steam engines.

Government

Yorkton is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by Garry Breitkreuz of the Conservative Party of Canada. From 1968 to 1993, it was represented by Lorne Nystrom of the New Democratic Party.

Education

High Schools:

• Yorkton Regional High School
• Sacred Heart High School, Yorkton
• Dream Builders

Elementary Schools:

• Columbia Elementary School
• Dr. Brass Elementary School
• M.C. Knoll Elementary School
• St. Alphonsus School
• St. Mary's School
• St. Michael's School
• St. Paul's School
• Yorkdale Central School

Post Secondary Institutions:

• Parkland Regional College
• Academy of Learning Career and Business College

Sports Teams

• Yorkton Terriers
• Yorkton Harvest
• Yorkton Cardinals
• Yorkton Bulldogs
• Sacred Heart Saints
• Saskatchewan Roughriders

Military

The 64th (Yorkton) Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery is garrisoned at the Yorkton Armouries.

Notable Yorktonites

• Brent Fedyk - Former NHL player
• Alvin Law - Armless motivational speaker
• Jarret Stoll - Current NHL player (Los Angeles Kings)
• Anthony Merchant - Lawyer and political figure

Tourism

• Yorkton Galagher centre
• Yorkton Tower Theatre
• Western Development Museum

See also

List of communities in Saskatchewan

External links

• City of Yorkton
• Tourism Yorkton
• Yorkton Minor Hockey
• Loca Labour Market
• Google Map
• Google Satellite Photo
• Yorkton Western Development Museum