 Few landmarks exist in this part of the province. One such location, known as "Whitestone Crossing", however, was a landmark before Nokomis district was homesteaded. Lake Peter, situated on Sec. 0-29-21, is just north of J.S. McIntosh's farm. In the early days before the roads were made, Saline Creek, which drains Lake Peter, was always crossed at the McIntosh farm. A large limestone is situated there, and this was always known as "Whitestone Crossing". Some years ago Mr. McIntosh had occasion to hire a French Canadian who had fought in the Riel Rebellion. As they approached his farm the man recognized the country. "I have been here before," he said. "There is the creek we used to water our horses and a little way further there is a white stone where we used to cross the creek."
 The Carleton Trail, which traverses north near Lanigan to Batoche, passes some six miles to the east of the Nokomis district.
Numerous trails wound throughout the district, crossing at intervals. One of the more prominent was the old Saskatoon Trail, also known as the Indian Trail, which ran through a mile west of Jim McIntosh's homestead to the Touchwood Hills. The Strassburg Trail, running north near the Gandy place and several others including the Peacock trail ran west of the present townsite. Located on the north and east main tracks was a red shack belonging to the Meikle family. Almost everyone who passed through stopped at the Meikle's red shack and no one who needed a meal or bed ever went on without it. This trail leading north across the prairie later became known as the Red Shack trail, and was one of the main trails leading south to Strassburg.
The old Telegraph Trail ran within 15 miles of the present location of Nokomis. The poles have rotted and fallen over now, but used to be located 15 miles east and 3 miles north, on the old Harry Chute farm.
Little has been found of early Indian habitation in the district. The first homesteaders reported it to be absolutely bare prairie, with no trace of shrubbery. All trees and bushes had been burned off by prairie fires. Some Indian stones have been found, such as utensils used for the pounding of corn. It is believed that this part of the plain was used by the Indian for hunting, evidenced by the herds of antelope seen by the earliest, white men, and the finding of arrowheads.
After 1900, surveyors began to reach this part of the Northwest Territories and stake out the land. Again in 1925, C.C. Cowper of the topographical survey of Canada, encamped with a party of eight men in the vicinity of the Nokomis school. They mapped the Touchwood sheet of the section map of Canada. The Touchwood sheet is one of a series of maps covering western Canada. Each sheet covers approximately 90 miles from east to west and 50 miles from north to south. Nokomis lies in about the centre of the Touchwood sheet.
"The Thrill of Turning The Sod"
Homesteaders came to the Last Mountain valley area which later became known as Nokomis because of the lure of cheap land, because they wanted to escape overcrowding or oppression, or because they were in search of adventure and new horizons. Following the work of surveyors, the area was opened for homesteading in 1904.
Frank Stinchcomb was the first homesteader to reach the Lockwood vicinity in 1904. His nearest neighbor was near Long Lake and he got his mail at Arlington Beach the first summer. He homesteaded 1 1/2 miles west of the present site of the village of Lockwood, with a nephew Dorsey Eckleberry. Their nearest neighbor was Jack Simpson, 25 miles away, and they were 50 miles from the nearest trading centre at Davidson. Mrs. Stinchcomb joined him in the spring of 1905. It is believed that Mrs. Simpson spent the winter of 1904-05 in the district, making her the first woman to winter here.
Several homesteaders came in the summer and fall of 1904 to choose a homestead site, among them William Massie, who claims to be the first man in township 30. He returned to Regina to file title, and came back to his homestead in the spring of 1905. John Shields homesteaded east of the present site of Nokomis. In 1904 Richard Kells came to homestead from Qu'Appelle by wagon. He chose a site 3 1/2 miles south of Tate.
Early settlers came as far as Strasbourg, then the end of the steel, and transported their goods overland by various methods. Some travelled down from Lumsden, by foot or by horseback, having filed their homesteads in Regina. Many of the first settlers in the Nokomis district freighted their lumber, machinery and supplies over the trail from Craven to Strassburg in 1905 and 1906. This later became known as the "Trail of 1905" and legion are the stories of pluck and perseverance which argue well for the prosperity of homesteaders of the Last Mountain district.
During the early years, the steamboat "Qu'Appelle" transported goods and lumber from Lumsden and Valeport, 60 miles down the lake, and made the round trip to Watertown on the west side of the lake, 20 miles distant from Arlington Beach. From these points, mail was picked up and despatched to the various post offices. A store and lumber yard, long since torn down, at one time did a thriving business at Watertown.
In 1905, various groups and individuals swarmed into this area, following glowing advertising of the Last Mountain Valley as a grain growing paradise. Extensive advertising was carried on in the United States and even across the ocean in Great Britain.
In the fall of 1904, Jim McDougall and Frank Reynolds, forerunners of a group of 22 settlers from Humboldt, Nebraska, came north through the Canadian northwest on a scouting expedition. In Regina they contacted a land agent and asked for wheat land. They spent several days there, picking out land for some of their friends back in Nebraska, and for themselves, in the highly rated Last Mountain Valley. When they returned to Nebraska they bore enthusiastic tales of the north country. During the winter of 1904-1905, others, swayed by the literature they had obtained from a Canada tent at the State Fair in Lincoln, and from the Canadian Bennett Agency in Omaha, decided to come north. One of that group, G.H. Hummel, filed on a homestead by mail, with B. A. See, land agent at Davidson. With the arrival of spring in 1905, the party boarded an immigrant car, paid their fare of 1c a mile and set off on their expedition. The majority of the young men were in search of adventure, and expected to prove up on their homesteads and "return to civilization". Some came because of the overcrowded farmland in Nebraska. The cars started from Humboldt in a special train as far as Minneapolis, travelling on regular freights from then on to Davidson.
Russ Gandy and Hugh Viets were stowaways on the trip — young men going to the wild and wooly west after adventure. Russ Gandy was put
off the train just south of the border. The trains were slow moving in those days, and in his dry manner, Russ remarked "Reckon if I was in a hurry I would have to walk anyway." He struck off down the track and caught the train at the next divisional point. They landed at Davidson with 11 cars of settlers effects on March 24th, on a Canadian Northern Immigration train.
After their arrival at Davidson, the party split up. Part of the group settled around Tegaske. The remainder trekked by team and wagon around the north end of Last Mountain Lake to take up their homesteads, all of which were located to the south and west of the present site of Nokomis. Of this group only two remain at Nokomis — Art Stalder and Guy Hummel. The others have either returned to Nebraska, moved elsewhere, or died.
Arriving at their destination they located their homesteads, although they rode all the first day, bareback, without seeing as much as a shack anywhere. Great was their dismay when they located the homesteads, to discover some of them square in the middle of the alkali flats. Guy Hummel abandoned his and journeyed to Regina to file on another location, and Art Stalder also filed nearby in August.
With the help of some of the others, Guy Hummel built a sod barn the first summer of 1905. The party lived in tents the first summer, as did many of the early pioneers.
Ready cash was scarce at that time. However, the party had plenty to eat and had brought a cow and chickens with them on the immigrant train. A fifty bushel to the acre crop of oats was harvested that first year, by means of a separator driven by the power of eight horses. Their hardships were not great. They were young and healthy. They had ample supplies of vegetables, butter, eggs and milk. Prairie fires proved to be the main scourge of the homesteaders. On more than one occasion, the party camped for safety on ground that had been burned off by the flames.
During the first months, mail was obtained from the post offices at Taylorboro, Lake City or Peacock. It had been brought down the lake by the Steamer "Qu'Appelle" which plied the lake from Valeport regularly.
In 1904, the Jamieson family, who had come out from Scotland and settled at Melita, filed on a homestead, and in 1905 George and Jim proved up on it. They also lived under canvas the first summer. Jim did the teaming and drew lumber from Lumsden. In 1906, when the family came to live, they obtained a post office on their land, Sec. 36-29-23-w2 and called it Ythanbank, after their old home in Scotland on the banks of the river Ythan. |
