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McKague 2016
McKague
March 27, 2016
by: Timothy W. Shire
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Though we drive by the highway sign frequently, McKague is six kilometres east of highway 35 and I haven’t been back to it since I first visited it in September of 1998. There are at least three, perhaps more dwellings now and only a few indications of old buildings from the past. The exceptions are shown on this page.

The interesting thing I found was that two of the buildings from 1998 have both undergone considerable upgrades. On this page the picture at the top is how it looked in 1998 and the bottom one as it looked on Thursday of this past week.

As you can see the Roman Catholic church has been refurbished with a fresh coat of paint. It has no electrical service but stands proudly on its site.

Now there is no roadside marker showing where the former village is located and just as in 1998 I drove right on by and proceeded south past the CPR bridge below.
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The two commercial buildings from 1998 are remarkably still almost there. The post office which appeared to have been operating then has long since closed but the building appears still to be intact.

Russell’s store, which was boarded up then is in the process of being demolished.

One of the things apparent from these pictures is the pictures themselves. The camera of 1998 was pretty primitive compared with the modern Canon Rebel to shoot these images.

Also the software used to create the 1998 web page was some freeware of the day which involved using a word processor and with it creating the web pages. Simple and effective software of that type really doesn’t exist today and the page you are seeing here was created using rather complex software called RapidWeaver, created in England and though considerably more powerful than what was used in 1998 it and its accessories add up to much more than a $100.

Though the camera and software are seriously different from what was used eighteen years ago the computer is essentially not that different. The Mac Mini I use now is much more reliable and the two flat panel screens are easier on the eyes than the three CRT bubble glass screens of the day but for ease of operation and efficiency not much change.
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This pair of pictures demonstrated to me the enduring positive nature of rural Saskatchewan and its people. In 1998 the school looked pretty much like an abandoned building yet now eighteen years later we see the same building looking pretty good with a new roof atop the structure. Obviously, the community must still make use of this building and they are maintaining it reusing it in the context of today.

The people who have their homes in McKague have modern houses and it is obvious from their yards that there is industry and affluence involved. The rural farm area around McKague continues to be very productive and prospers much as the whole agricultural scene in this part of Saskatchewan.

Though I chose to end this page with the somewhat bleak sky scene below, I really didn’t intend for that to be the theme of the page but rather a sort of reality check. On this Easter weekend it is good to remember that life goes on and we are all under the sky that shapes our day to day lives.
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