The Canadian government had offered free land to settlers; 160 acres of land that often proved to be marginal at best to produce crops. Captain John Palliser had concluded in 1857 “that the short grass prairie of Western Canada would never support viable agriculture”. Farmers fought scorching winds, blowing dust, the drought, hail, frost, grasshoppers and rust in the Palliser Triangle.

The land was broken and cultivated, producing good crops and increasing production as more and more land was broken. The railways constructed more than one thousand miles of branchlines in Saskatchewan prior to WW I. The rail line came to Dunblane in 1914, remaining the end of steel for quite some time before track was laid to Birsay and Beechy. The harvest of a bumper crop in 1915 meant farmers would travel 8 to 10 miles to the station instead of the 25 or 30 miles they previously traversed to pick up supplies and take their grain to market. The Federal Elevator was built in 1915, followed by the Central, the Anchor, the Sterling elevators and the Home Grain Company elevator. The town now boasted of several stores, a café, a poolroom, a butcher shop, a boarding house and a Ford dealership. “Tin Lizzies” sold by the freight carload. There were serious crop failures in 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1920 but the town continued to flourish. In 1919 the Dunblane Rural Telephone Company was formed, a church and manse and an open-air rink were constructed in 1922. Electric power was provided from the roundhouse.

In 1925, three hundred men descended on the village for the construction of a dual railway and vehicle bridge across the South Saskatchewan River between Dunblane on the west and Elbow on the east. The bridge would shorten the grain and coal haul from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan to the eastern ports. A camp of several buildings was constructed of rough hewed timbers, including two Sleeping Camps, a Cookhouse and Dining Hall. To control the possibility of the sandy river bottom from being scoured from around the bridge piers by the river current, immense quantities of fieldstones were placed around the piers. Throughout the summer of 1925 farmers in the vicinity gathered up stones from their land. The stone was hauled to the bridge site or to railcars for delivery to the material yard. The bridge was 1771 feet long consisting of 10 spans.

Sir Henry Thornton opened the bridge on November 15, 1926. The text of the C.N.R. press release stated, “In the annals of engineering triumphs of the Province of Saskatchewan, the construction of this new bridge, for immensity, design and excellence of detail, has never been equaled.” Lady Thornton received a bouquet from seven-year-old Irene Emmington. Trains had arrived from Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw bringing more than 300 dignitaries, guests and press to the gala affair. George Emmington, the Boarding Car Supervisor for the Saskatchewan District, was in charge of a luncheon of roast beef and buffalo steaks.

Three trains of Turner Valley crude oil were hauled through Dunblane daily to Moose Jaw and Regina refineries. The population of 300 remained stable until a pipeline stretched across Canada reducing train service to one lonely train each week. The population declined as the railway activity diminished and preliminary work was being done for the Gardiner Dam. The roundhouse was demolished in 1932. By 1940 test drilling and dam surveys were complete and full-scale decline in population was held in check by the construction of the Gardiner Dam commencing in 1959. The population had tripled by 1964.

The Dunblane Bridge was removed in 1964, as the water of what today is Deifenbaker Lake was rising behind the nearly completed dam. The town population collapsed at the end of construction. In 1969 there were twenty houses occupied, seven school-aged children and a population of fewer than fifty.

The Gardiner Dam was a realization of a dream of irrigation for people who suffered the trauma of the 30’s-----------depression and unemployment sharpened by drought and successive crop failures. Houses were plucked from the streets of Dunblane to be moved to new locations and commercial buildings demolished for the materials. By 1980 little remained but a bold station name sign declaring “DUNBLANE”. A town, and most of its history, had disappeared.

Information sources for this article are from the author’s personal files, “Echoes of Coteau”, a history of area residents and “Men Against The Desert” by James H.Gray. More information on the Dunblane Bridge and the C.N.R’s practice of applying the “Courtesy and Service” slogan on bridge spans can be found in C.N. Lines, Volume 12, Number 4.