A substantial regional history produced under the characteristic subscription-based model of the S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, known for its extensive series of local and provincial histories across North America. As with other Clarke imprints, the set combines general historical essays with a large body of biographical sketches supplied by, or written about, subscribing citizens.
Volume I presents not a continuous narrative but a wide-ranging suite of essays. Opening with Saskatchewan’s terrain and geological features, it proceeds through discussions of First Nations, the Hudson’s Bay Company, the North-West Resistance and Louis Riel, the North-West Council under David Laird, and accounts of the major Christian denominations active in the region. Additional sections cover the North-West Mounted Police, the political manoeuvring surrounding the creation of the western provinces, surveying and railway development, and essays on wheat, cooperative dairying, education, and liquor regulation (“Prohibition : License : Government Sale”).
Volume II continues in this eclectic vein, focusing largely on immigration and settlement. It includes treatments of various ethnic communities—Mennonite, Galician, Bukovinian, Patagonian Welsh—along with narrative accounts of settlers’ experiences. Approximately two-thirds through the volume, the work transitions into biographical portraits of notable Saskatchewan residents and subscribers.
Volume III is devoted entirely to these biographical entries and is accompanied by an index of names covering all portraits in the set.
