ELK POINT – Many changes have occurred in the past six decades since Elk Point became a town on Feb. 3, 1962 and Mayor Mike Habiak, who had been mayor of the former village since January 1953, had a full council of six and a larger maintenance crew to deal with the increasing services.
Water supply was one of the problems the new town had to deal with, as the shallow wells in town could no longer provide enough for a growing population and deeper wells that were drilled west of town were full of rust. The water reservoir south of town would not be put in place for another six years, with water pumped into it from first Atimoswe Creek, and later through anElk Point annually placed pipeline from the North Saskatchewan River. It would take many decades before it would be replaced by a regional water line bringing a constant supply of treated water from St. Paul.
Natural gas, however, was available to the residents for heating and cooking and had been for over a decade by that time Elk Point achieved town status..
Paved streets were 10 years in the future then, but the town had a shiny new curling rink, built the previous year, and the Elks Lodge, formed in 1961, was already making plans to build a hall north of the Legion hall, which was too small for the rapidly increasing membership. An outdoor skating rink was also located nearby but an indoor rink was still 11 years in the future.
Elk Point had had a municipal hospital for 33 years by 1962 and a clinic for 16 years, new schools built in 1957 and 1961, and four churches, some of them dating back to the 1920s, as did the railway, grain elevators, creamery and stockyards. Baseball diamonds, tennis courts and the golf course had also been in place for decades. Those sports facilities are still going strong, but the elevators and stockyards disappeared along with the railroad, and the creamery more than a decade prior to that.
Elk Point’s population in 1962 was 726, and had exactly doubled to 1,452 in 2016, unfortunately declining to 1,182 by 2021 after fluctuating oil prices caused a number of families to leave the community. However, a recent major increase in home sales is once again pointing the way to population growth.
On Elk Point’s 60th birthday, Mayor Parrish Tung said that despite the population decline, “The town has seen unprecedented growth during the past 20 years. We have new residential subdivisions with a few new builds. Further, we have a well-developed industrial park with serviced lots, which are ready for new investors and business. Most important of all is the growth of our community in terms of services offered and volunteer involvement for the betterment of our town and residents. I am really optimistic about the future of our town.”
