Govan

Town, pop 274, located E of the N end of Last Mountain Lake, mid-way between Strasbourg and Nokomis on Hwy 20. The first known settler in the area arrived in 1903, and by around 1906 all of the available homesteads were occupied. Govan developed as a Farming community with the construction of the railway from Strasbourg to Lanigan. The townsite was surveyed in 1906, and in 1907 Govan was incorporated as a village, its name honouring Walter Govan, one of the area’s early settlers. The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, has a model depicting Govan at about this time as an example of a typical early prairie town. In 1916, the community reached a peak population of 500. In 1967, Govan’s senior men’s Baseball team won the Western Canadian Baseball Championships; they were subsequently inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame. Today the community is best known for hosting the Govan Old Tyme Fiddle Festival and the Saskatchewan Fiddlers Championships. The concurrent events, held the first weekend in July, have been running for over 20 years and draw competitors and fans from across North America.

David McLennan