We continue our trip heading east on highway 9 in Alberta and we come to the town of Hanna.
Hanna first settled in 1912 and mainly a farming/ranching community has a population of around 2400 people.
Hanna was named after David Hanna, who was the third vice president of the Canadian National Railway and at the time Hanna was a division point with a 10 stall roundhouse.
Hanna, since it became a town has always served as the main service community for ranchers and farmers who were seeking services in banking , medical and shopping services.
Hanna is on the mainline of the Canadian National Railway from Saskatoon to Calgary and remains partly a railway town.
Hanna over the years has had to deal with the ups and down of the economy due to drought and other natural occurrences.
Hanna has since the 70’s and the start of the oil boom, along with the building of a power generating station has seen continued growth.
Hanna is a full service community with a wide selection of businesses.
One interesting fact about Hanna was the first constable of Hanna was a large Texas man named Joe Winkler.
Joe Winker was a tough kind of a fellow that fought in the Spanish American War and was a member of Roosevelt’s Roughriders in the USA, but on the advice of his doctor he should retire to a cooler climate.
Joe Winkler took that advice and moved into Canada and into Calgary, he then homesteaded 30 miles southwest of Hanna farming, before finally settling in Hanna.
Joe Winkler kept law and order in Hanna and the surrounding area for the next 36 years.
Hanna is involved in a number of sports in which hockey is the number 1 pastime in the winter.
One notable of hockey from Hanna is the wild moustache of Lanny McDonald who came from Hanna and ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Another notable of this community is the band Nickleback, Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger and Ryan Peake all members of this widely popular rock’n roll band.
Hanna is a great place to stop and eat while on the road.
We continue east on highway 9 and travel by the almost ghost town of Richdale, which today still has a population of 10 people, and like many other small communities they slowly disappear.
Next up is a couple of ghost towns, Stanmore and Scotfield, which has zero population and all that remains is a few buildings ready to fall and a couple of street signs.
We come to the village of Youngstown and a population of around 150 people.
Youngstown was named after J. Young who sold and purchased land around the area and helped in the development of the village and when it came to name the town it was natural just to name it Youngstown.
The community promote’s itself as a “Sportsman’s Paradise” due to all the wild game and birds that inhabit the area along with all the great trout fishing from the nearby waterways.
Youngstown is small but has lots to offer its residents.
Stay tuned for more adventures of the Saskatchewan Traveller…