Leroy

Town, pop 413, located SW of Watson, 13 km W of Hwy 6. The area economy is based on agriculture. Settlers to the district were largely of English, Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, and German origins. In 1907 the first school, named Bogend, and in 1909 a post office, named Bog End (the variations of the spelling are correct), were established within 1.5 km of the present townsite. With the construction of the CPR line in 1920–21, the townsite was established and the name Leroy was adopted for the community; it was chosen to honour John Leroy, the son of one of the first families to settle in the district, who lost his life during World War I. During World War II, airmen from all over the British Commonwealth made Leroy a bustling place as they prepared and trained for the war effort at No. 5 Bombing and Gunnery School just west of Big Quill Lake. The years following World War II were prosperous times; Leroy’s population more than doubled within ten years, growing from 213 in 1946 to 514 in 1956. Leroy attained town status in 1963. Beginning in the late 1960s, however, the community entered a period of continuous decline. Between 1980 and 1990, the population of the town fell by 17% and that of the surrounding rural municipality by 25%. As the retail and service sector of the community was declining, some began to wonder if the community would completely disappear; what followed, however, has been a small-town success story. Proactive community leaders in Leroy vigorously pursued initiatives, innovations, partnerships, and new co-operative ventures, and have realized a significant degree of success in building a sustainable future. Volunteerism and fund-raising events led to the revitalization of social, cultural, and recreational facilities. Community-rooted business ventures, such as the Leroy Watson Co-op’s establishment of an integrated farm supply service for fertilizers, crop protection, and seed, as well as the significant furthering of the area’s hog industry, have led directly to the creation of over a hundred new jobs since 1990. The Saskatchewan government’s Action Committee on the Rural Economy (ACRE) named Leroy a model community in terms of contemporary economic development strategies for rural Saskatchewan.

David McLennan