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Kandahar & Area
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Kandahar, Saskatchewan,
Canada is a small community of less than 50 people The area is good
farming country. There are several seed farms in the
area. This is the best place
to see Big Quill Lake, and it certainly is a big lake.
The Rise and Fall of the Village of Kandahar Printed with permission from the history book "Reflections on the Quills"
In December of 1912, a group of residents of the district then known as Candahar petition for the erection into a Village the following: The East half of Section twenty (20) and the West half of Section twenty-one (21) in Township thirty-two (32), Range Seventeen (17) West of the Second Meridian in the Province of Saskatchewan. The Department of Municipal Affairs required that the area contain not less than one hundred actual residents, twenty-five of whom were to be male persons of the full age of twenty-one years. The petition was signed by the following residents:
Some of the above signatures were difficult to decipher, so may not be correctly spelled. A month later the following telegraph was received via the Canadian Pacific Railway Company:
It is to be noted that almost immediately, the spelling of the name Candahar was changed to Kandahar. The terrain was flat and treeless, Soon the council arranged to have trees planted on the boulevards and residents planted trees and shrubs on their respective properties. In addition to the aforementioned businesses, the Lakeview Hotel was built. John Thorsteinson and later S. Indridason and Solvy Solvason were owners. The hotel building burned down in 1925 or 1926 and was not rebuilt. Andres Helgason owned and operated a printing business. A rooming and boarding house was built and run by Mr. and Mrs. "Vidi" Halldorson. That house eventually became the "New World Cafe" with Mah Sam and Mah Quay (Dick) as proprietors. Mr. Crawford had a drugstore, which was later taken over as a general store by Mr. S. Cramer. The Bank of Montreal and the Imperial Bank of Canada set up businesses in the village. Some of the bank workers were H. Delameter, R. W, Thorne, Mr. Olson, Carl Warren, Les Sherman, Clarence Henry, and Jean McLennan (Watt). The three grain elevators were the Saskatchewan Elevator Co., The Saskatchewan Co-operative, and the National Elevator Co. In later years the Sask. Wheat Pool took over the Sask. Co-operative Elevator Company. The Saskatchewan Elevator Co. became a part of the Searle Grain Co. T. Halldorson was the first postmaster, in 1910. Others serving in that position were Kristjan Hjalmarson, Perry Johnson, Mrs. H. S. Hockridge, S. Thorsteinson, Annie Thorsteinson, Andrew McLelland, Mary Helen Gilchrist, Thomas Lauder, Mrs. Winnifred Wright, Carl Hornseth, Frank Jordan, and John Brekke. Saskatchewan Government Telephones had a telephone-exchange building with living quarters in the rear. Some of the operators over the years were Marie Ferguson, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Armstrong, Inga Bjornson, Esther Skjerven, Aldis Auchstaetter, and Lily Leffler. The hardware store started by N. A. McGratten was taken over by Caskey and MacDonnell. The Security Lumber Co. opened up a yard in Kandahar with Mr. C. Auchstaetter as agent and retained by him until its closure. K. Hjalmarson and T. Steinson, general merchants, sold out to Thorstein Indridason, and sons Svein and "Scoop" assisted in the store management. Two of their long-time clerks were Bill Benson and Gestur Dalmann. In 1935 or 1936 the stock was sold to Fishman of Wynyard, and the store managed by Alex Melnechuk assisted by Larry Latimer. Albert Anderson and Joe Shindelka were the next owners of the business, In 1942 Kandahar end District formed their own independent Co-op Store with Steve Forai as manager, By the early 1950s they had put up a new building. That store served the people of the area until 1975 when the membership voted to dissolve. The building was sold to John Brekke, who operated a grocery store for a few years. The building was sold and subsequently moved out of town leaving the residents with no choice but to drive to Wynyard for their needs. The first butcher shop was owned and operated by S. Westergaard, followed by Robert Weir, then Alvin Reinsch. That building eventually passed out of existence. John Sumarlidson operated a poolroom and barbershop. Another barber was Steve Stephanson. One of the earliest organizations was the Icelandic Ladies’ Aid. Mesdames J. B. Jonnson, J. Stephanson, E. Helgason, T. Frederickson, T. Steinson, J. Gudnason, and C. Hjalmarson were among the charter members. As a result of their efforts, the peas and an organ were purchased for the Icelandic Lutheran Church. Their Thanksgiving Fowl Suppers were renowned far and wide and the hall was always filled to capacity. Later on the ladies of the area formed a Hospital Aid. The Young People's Club was instrumental in obtaining some land on the west edge of Kandahar to serve as a sports ground, consisting of a baseball diamond and horse-racing track. There was at one time a league consisting of four teams – Dafoe, Kandahar, Copeland, and Poplar Grove (Product), Some of the Kandahar players were Carl Warren, Clarence Henry, Sam Bjornson, Svein 1ndridason (pitcher and catcher), Buster Auchstaetter (pitcher and catcher), Kato Wood (1st base), Albert Skjerven (2nd base), Art Thorfinnson (short stop), Hans Bjornson (3rd base), John Sveinbjornson, Nym Bjornson, and Bill Skjerven in the field. Other players were John H. P. and Fusi Johnson, Eddie Stephanson, Bill Benson, Ernie Newham, and Valdi Sigfusson. Kandahar had an open-air skating rink. Almost everyone skated, and hockey games against teams from other towns were frequent and well-attended. A tennis court was also available to anyone who wished to play. The Young Liberals’ Association was very active for a time, They sponsored a girls' softball team comprised of players from the Kandahar and Levant areas. The Curling Club started as an open-air sheet of ice in an alley north of the Security Lumber Yard. Eventually a rink consisting of two sheets of ice and a waiting room was built. Everyone curled – the men, some of the ladies living in town, and the school children. As soon as the ice was ready, the rink became the centre of activity until spring break-up. In the l920s the Village Hall was the place to go to see a movie, black and white and silent. A projection room, high above the entrance doors, manned by John Thorsteinson of Wynyard, offered the following pictures in 1920: "The Glorious Lady", "The Scarlet Days", "Why I Would Not Marry", "The Silver Horde", "The Midnight Patrol", "One of the Blood", "Cleopatra", "Upstairs and Down", "The Red Lantern", and "Pollyanna", Saturday night was "picture show" time in Kandahar. The dry, cropless years of the Thirties spelled disaster for some of the businesses of the village. Buildings were vacated and left to deteriorate, Houses were sold and moved out, the Bank of Montreal building was moved out to become a school in the Foote District, With the advent of better highways and faster cars, people of the district began going further afield for their supplies and entertainment. Postal service was discontinued in 1979. The only remaining place of business is an eating establishment, the well-known "Kandahar Steak House" under the management of Tong, son of Mah Sam. Today, early 1980, the population consists of approximately fifty residents; a sad conclusion to what was once a thriving and prosperous village.
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