RM of Glen McPherson’s story
The Rural Municipality of Glen McPherson No. 46 incorporated on January 1, 1913. Before that, the area was run as a nameless Local Improvement District under the provincial government, with government crews doing all the roadwork and bridge-building and land taxes paid directly to Regina. When residents asked for their own municipal government in 1913, it was granted.
The new council weighed several names. One would have honoured Glenelg, a Scottish village that once served as the Isle of Skye ferry terminus. Another was McPherson, after a civil servant in the municipal field who might help the new government. The council combined the two into Glen McPherson. A rural post office took the name and operated from 1915 to 1946.
Settlement came quickly. The school districts of Tweed, Buffalo Horn and Divide were organized within the first year, and Coriander, Banff and South Pinto followed through 1916. At incorporation the population was estimated at 800, including 275 resident farmers. By 1917 the estimate was 1,300 people and 400 farmers, a number that has declined since.
The council never had its own office building. It met in a private home until the house burned in 1922, destroying most of the early records, and then at the centrally located Broncho school. Telephone service arrived in 1927. In 1931 the Canadian Pacific Railway surveyed the south of the RM for a branch line from Val Marie to Mankota, but drought and crop failure ended the plan. As a result, Glen McPherson has never had a town, a village or a mile of railway. Two heritage properties remain: the 1927 Billimun Church and the Reliance Community Centre, a one-room school built in 1915.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Rural Municipality of Glen McPherson No. 46” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.
