When You’re Not from the Prairie: Place History in the Forest Fringe of Saskatchewan

Abstract

Dividing Canada into regions—for analysis and comparison, and to develop broad categories of inclusion—is a common tool used by Canadian historians. Regional definitions can become stagnant and isolationist, however, restricting broader inter- and intra-regional analysis. Regionalism can overemphasize the contrasts and ignore the connections between regions. This essay presents a case study of the community of Paddockwood, Saskatchewan. The Paddockwood area straddles the transition zone between the prairie south and the boreal north. Using place history and the environmental concepts of cultural edge and ecological edge, this essay argues that Paddockwood developed a hybrid identity that combines aspects of both prairie and forest. The essay also augments analysis on rural and agricultural life, suggesting that the concept of mixed farming, as practised during Paddockwood’s early development, was more than a simple mix of grain and livestock. It was a way of life built on occupational pluralism, tied to an informal rural economy, that relied on both on-farm and off-farm use of the local landscape.