Waldheim's story begins in 1893, when Mennonite families from Manitoba and South Dakota arrived to settle and farm the land. Their move was part of a larger migration. In the 1870s, Mennonites of Dutch-German origin living in colonies in the Black Sea region of present-day Ukraine had grown alarmed by rising nationalism in the Russian Empire, land shortages, pressure toward Russification in their schools, and the weakening of the promise of exemption from military service. Canada was looking for farming immigrants, and about 7,000 Mennonites went to Manitoba, where two reserves were set aside for them.
In the early 1890s some of those families moved on to the District of Saskatchewan, and others came directly from Russia, the Danzig region of Prussia, and Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota. Thriving farming communities soon took shape in the Saskatchewan Valley around Aberdeen, Laird, Waldheim, Langham, Dalmeny and Rosthern. Churches were built, land was broken and cropped, and roads were laid out. The Canadian Northern Railway reached Waldheim in 1908.
The old Canadian Northern station, which closed in 1976, now serves as a library and museum. Downtown, Sam Wendland Heritage Park, created in 2000, honours a longtime mayor. Waldheim also has a regional park, a golf course, and an arena and curling rink built in 1976.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Waldheim, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.