Maple Creek sits in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan, with the creek of the same name running along the west side of town. Its story begins with the North-West Mounted Police at Fort Walsh. Once the post was established, settlers began to explore the Cypress Hills, living along the creeks and doing small-scale ranching.
A few miles south of the present townsite, the Department of the Interior ran a farm for First Nations people on Maple Creek. In 1882-1883 the people there, mainly Cree, Saulteaux and Assiniboine, were moved to Qu'Appelle. The farm was then run by Major Shurtleff, a former Mounted Police officer, and his brother-in-law George Wood.
Maple Creek itself dates to the winter of 1882, when a Canadian Pacific Railway construction crew of 12 decided to stay put where the town now stands. In June 2010 the creek overflowed its banks and flooded part of the town, in a flood that hit much of southwestern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta.
Two buildings are designated municipal heritage properties: the W. R. Orr Building of 1910, which has housed banks and law offices, and St. Mary's Anglican Church, built in 1909 in the Romanesque style with a belfry and steeple added in 1928.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Maple Creek, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.