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Scottish Dancers Historical Silhouette – on a power pole 100 block Commercial St.

The following excerpt written by J.A. (Scotty) MacDonald and found in Saltcoats Roots and Branches

“At 5:30 a.m., Sunday, April 20th, 1889, an immigrant train – one of the first trains over the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway to Saltcoats, the end of the steel – arrived at its destination with 500 passengers. Forty-two families were from the West Hebrides – North Uist, Harris and Lewis. Ten families were from the mainland -Invernesshire – and several families were from the Orkney Islands. As the greater part of these immigrants were Gaelic speaking, it is perhaps not astonishing that some of their English neighbours at the time inquired about their nationality. Coming to Canada under the Imperial Colonization Board plan, these immigrants, commonly called “Crofters” (small farmers) left their native Scotland on April 1, settled in Township 25, Ranges 1 and 2, the number of the quarter section the settler had purchased being painted on his trunk previous to leaving the Old Land. A number of settlers had come in 1888, but at the time the Scottish settlers landed, there were only a few families living North of Saltcoats.

The settlers were given a team of oxen, a cow, a combination long-handled plow and three sections of harrows, and one wagon between two families.

The Immigrants lived for 3 weeks in the Immigration Hall then the land guide, George Hill, directed them to the lake on section 8-25-1, where 30 tents were erected for them. Later, shacks measuring 12X16 were built of one ply of lumber and roofed with one ply of tar paper instead of shingles. The settlers were given the sum of $600.00 to do all this and the loans were charged against the land.

It was a beautiful day when the Scotch settlers landed in Saltcoats. The grass was green, the bluffs were in full foliage and the exiles gazed with delight upon the land of their adoption.”

Scottish settlers continued to move to Saltcoats over the following years. More came from the Orkney Islands (the Scandinavian Scots). They were a sizeable community that settled in the Cut-Arm district primarily - but many others - Kerrs, Gibsons, Smiths, Thompsons, Underwoods, Messes, Murrays, and latecomers like the Torries, just to name a few.