Yorkton Stories

Sherry Whitehawk has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. For most grandparents that’s where the counting stops. Not so for Sherry. For clarification: many still know her as Sherryl and still call her that, but she will explain how that additional letter in her first name came about, and why it is no longer there. Since her retirement from a career in social work and very active volunt...

When Linda Cymbalisty married Joe Skomorowski, they set their sights on leaving Winnipeg and setting up their own plumbing shop in a rural town. And that included quitting university and becoming a plumber herself! As it turned out, that was easier said than done – much, much easier said than done. She was far ahead of her time, and ran into  major roadblocks with educators, and even with the plum...

In 1997 Gene Krepekavich, the longtime Yorkton Terrier booster, volunteer and club president for six seasons published the history of the first 25 years of the junior Terriers hockey team. It starts with the 1972-73 season.  But what few, if any, remembered then and now, and what is not recorded in recent official histories of junior hockey in Yorkton, is an earlier team, also known as the Yorkton...

A local fundraiser that started in a snowy highway ditch has grown into an event that refuses to slow down, and now includes wheeled riders in the desert.  We follow the history of Yorkton’s Snowarama from a 1977 ride sparked by the pro wrestler "Whipper" Billy Watson to a multi‑chapter effort that supports SaskAbilities programs including Camp Easter Seal, the summer fun program, and ad...

Duval Lang, known to many as Duve, has been immersed in Calgary live theatre for 46 years now. He ended up there for university, and has called it home ever since, other than when he travelled the world as an actor. But in Yorkton, in the 1960s, he was one of the players on a provincial high school championship football team, representing Yorkton Collegiate Institute; not a big guy to be playing o...

To the many newer residents of Yorkton, the name Ruth Shaw likely isn’t recognizable. But to those who lived here in the latter half of the previous century, the name, and the woman who bore that name, was an unassuming but powerful force and voice in helping the province and beyond know about Yorkton through at least three major roles she played in the city. For 16 years she was the reporter and...

They were typical teenage boys when they lived in Yorkton in the 1970s, 80s, and into the early 90s. They came from different backgrounds, attended school here, took part in a variety of activities, pursued different goals, and left when they completed high school, four ending up in Alberta and one in Saskatoon. A common factor for these five young men from Yorkton is that they ended up at higher...

Dan Calef was, and sometimes still is, Dan the Storyman, known locally as the story-telling head of the Yorkton public library from 1983 to 1999. He looked after story time for kids, and told stories on local television in a show that ended up being shown nationally, and then also on American television. We turn the tables on him in this podcast by telling his story.  Here in Yorkton, he was also...

In the summer and fall of 2025, several factors came together, one of them out of the blue, to tackle and do more about hunger and food insecurity in Yorkton. The first was in early summer when the city of Yorkton hired a barriers to access co-ordinator, someone who was tasked with helping to set up local committees to address various barriers in the community. There was already a social housing c...

Those working in the field of psychiatry and mental health treatment across Canada and the United States came to Yorkton in 1964 and 1965 in large numbers to see for themselves how a new way of treating mental health patients was being implemented at the new Yorkton Psychiatric Centre. The new facility was a radical departure from what had been standard mental health treatment facilities in Saskat...

Kristopher Grunert was born and raised on the family farm on Orkney Road, a short drive northwest of Yorkton. His parents, sister and he lived on land first established as the Grunert homestead in 1888. Farming, however, was not in Kris’ future. As a teenager he developed a keen interest in skateboarding, then a relatively new sport in Yorkton, and that led him to Vancouver to pursue that dream. A...

Dr. Sigridur (Sigga) Christianson Houston and her husband Dr. Clarence Joseph (CJ) Houston operated a medical practice in Yorkton for nearly 50 years, after a year in Watfort City, North Dakota. Both were graduates of the University of Manitoba College of Medicine.  In their practice in Yorkton, she had a well-known and well-deserved reputation to make babies thrive, which brought mothers and chil...

The hockey career of Yorkton’s Metro Prystai has been well documented. He had a storied career with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings over a span of 12 years in the 1940s and 50s, scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Red Wings in the 1952 finals, back when there were only six teams and only the very best made it to the top, let alone the Stanley Cup playoffs. He won two Stanley...

When it comes to Yorkton sports dynasties, the dominance of Yorkton volleyball teams and players in the 1980s stands out.  Senior hockey had a good run with the Terriers winning three league titles and four provincial championships between 1967 and 1972. But nothing compares to the boys’ volleyball teams of the 1980s and the players, all 18 and under in age. Most were coached by Dennis Pomeroy, wh...

We haven't asked Siri, the Apple virtual assistant, about forensic pathology. But we did ask Alexa -- no, not Siri's counterpart at Google, but Alexa Haider, who  graduates this spring after four years of studies at Trent University in Peterborough, ON. I know Alexa from her work at Deer Park Golf Course the past two summers, and when she told me what she was studying, I was, to say the...

Almost sixty years ago, when I first came to Yorkton, it was a very "white" community where the names were predominantly Ukrainian, German or British, reflecting the founding and early settlement of this part of the prairies.  Census data from the past 15 years clearly show how things have changed. In 2011, about four percent of the population of Yorkton consisted of immigrants who were...

Shawn Sanford Beck -- born, raised and educated in Yorkton and area -- is now a pastor with the United Church in Saskatoon with a special mission. He was an Anglican priest, a position he left due to some unresolved conflicts with that denomination. He subscribes to and has written about Christian animism, is a member of the Order or Bards, Ovates and Druids, teaches Green Priestcraft, and conside...

The village of Hamton is like many Saskatchewan communities between Yorkton and Canora… still on the map, but not really there anymore.  But to say there is nothing left of Hamton is a mis-statement. It looks that way from the intersection of the grid roads to the west and south, since the triangle that was the village, between those two roads and the old rail line, is overgrown with tall weeds, s...

Lesotho, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is home to about two million people, including Ivan Yaholnitsky, whose family name is familiar in the Yorkton area. The Yaholnitsky family farmed south of Mikado. Ivan went to the University of Saskatchewan, and what he is doing in Lesotho is the topic of this podcast. Lesotho is a poor country. Nearly two-thirds of the country’s income comes from...

It's almost 50 years since the first computers started being used in Yorkton. We talked with Andy Balaberda, the first local computer teacher, and Rick Coleman; he and Warren Gamracy were very early entrants into the business of computer sales and support, with Rick also developing software. My own household also started using computers very early on. There you have it: three old guys – Andy,...

Perry Ehrlich left Yorkton in the early 1970s to attend the University of Saskatchewan. He became a successful lawyer in Vancouver, and continued to indulge in his love of music and performing; 30 years ago he founded Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! He has been called an impresario for conducting two one-month music camps each summer which attracts kids from literally around the world, and for teaching a...

This is the story of Alexander Ross – he had a middle name which started with the letter E, but in no sources, including when he was received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Regina, is his middle name mentioned. He was generally referred to as Brigadier-General Alexander Ross.  Our story is drawn from many sources, including information compiled by Ruth Shaw and available o...

Jason Payne has taught at the Yorkton Regional High School since 2002, but his involvement with youth and sports has expanded greatly beyond the boundaries of the school.  His dedication to high school sports and youth sports in Yorkton is unquestioned, yet in 2018 he nearly hung up his whistle. “I was burnt out by the demands of coaching. Instead of quitting I focused on the holistic development...

In the 2010s, Dr. Brass elementary school in Yorkton was down to under 90 students, and consideration was being given to closing the school. It is one of the older schools in Yorkton and parents in the area preferred to send their kids to other newer schools in the city.  Today it is bursting at the seams, primarily due to a program that started in 2020 to attract students not only from within the...

Cambodia is a country of 17 million in southeast Asia, sandwiched between Vietnam to the east and Thailand to the west, with Laos bordering it to the north. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas, and 57 per cent of households in the country are involved in agricultural production, mainly rice. It is a poverty-stricken country. It's also a long way from Yorkton, but in 2010 and...