Railway & Main: Small-Town Saskatchewan Hotels

Beating at the Hague Hotel:

On March 31, 1910, the Rosthern Enterprise reported that Herbert Henschel, a young Imperial Bank employee, was the victim of “a most dastardly assault” while asleep in bed at the hotel in Hague. Apparently, Mark Field, one of the proprietors of the hotel, had broken into Henschel’s room at 2:00 a.m. and beaten him over the head with a beer bottle. While protecting his face, Henschel was cut and bruised on his arms and shoulders, requiring medical attention. Mark Field left Hague immediately, but his brother Spencer Field was arrested and charged with being an accomplice in the assault. According to the Rosthern newspaper, the story going around town was that Mark Field had been looking for another man, that the mystery man knew Field was after him, and had asked Henschel to share his hotel room that night. “When the bedroom door was opened, he is said to have rolled quickly under the bed and lay perfectly still allowing the other young man to take the beating intended for himself, and not making a moved to assist him. Such cowardice is hardly conceivable but it is common talk that this really happened.”

Accidental Shooting at the Aneroid Hotel

Anderoid Hotel, 1914. Source

In December of 1914, Constable Buck of the Royal North West Mounted Police was in Aneroid on business, staying at the Aneroid Hotel. Newly married just two weeks before, Buck wanted to visit his good friend Bertrand Gossett who worked at the hotel. The two men were both from nearby Vanscoy. Once he was off duty, the policeman went into the hotel bar to see Gossett, who was working as the bartender. Gossett asked his friend if he could see his gun. Constable Buck took off his belt and holster and laid them on the bar. As he took his gun from its holster and passed it across the counter, the gun discharged. Gossett fell to the floor behind the bar, killed instantly by a gunshot wound to his head. Sources: Morning Leader and Aneroid: The Rising Barometer (1980), p. 10.

The "Rabbit Cafe" at the Bulyea Hotel

Hans Johnson built a hotel in Bulyea in 1906. It was situated close to a poplar bluff that was full of "an endless supply" of rabbits. Johnson's daughters used to stand out on the doorstep of the hotel with 22 rifles and pick off rabbits for fresh meat. "The oldtimers used to relate how rabbits showed up on the menu disguised in so many ways that they were never quite sure what they were eating," the Bulyea history book says. The Bulyea Hotel's dining room got to be referred to as the Rabbit Cafe. Source: Between Long Lake and Last Mountain: Bulyea, Duval, Strasbourg, Vol. 1 (1982), p. 194.

Tar and Feathering at the Langenburg Hotel

On a warm Saturday evening in early August of 1937, Henry Jackson went swimming with a married woman, Mrs. Mary Ann Berger, owner of the Langenburg Hotel. When they returned to the hotel, the two were accosted by four masked men who began smearing Jackson with tar. Jackson, "advanced in years," fought back, ripping the mask off one of the men. Mrs. Berger, who was in her late 50s, went into the hotel and emerged swinging a heavy club. The four men fled, and were later charged with aggravated assault. Source The hotel, once called the Imperial, had been built by Mary Ann's husband Richard Berger, who died in 1916. Mary Ann, who had four children from her marriage to Richard, never remarried.

Guard Dog at the Rosthern Hotel

James Roberge of Rosthern was ordered by the Saskatchewan Hotel License Commissioner on June 14, 1914 to chain up his night porter. “Evidently the night porter was something of a rough customer,” the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported, “for on one occasion he had nearly torn the clothes from the back of a man who tried to get into the office.” Roberge’s night porter was a bulldog. “You see,” Roberge explained, “there is not much doing at nights around the hotel, and I just leave the dog in the office. If anyone comes, the dog barks and I get up and attend to them”

Rum Runners at the Cadillac Hotel

Prohibition-era postcard. Source

Robert and Annie Stanley bought the 3-storey Cadillac Hotel in 1920. As Prohibition was in full force in Saskatchewan, the Stanley's turned the dining room into a general store. The former bar became a warehouse of the store. The Stanley's son Robert Jr. recalled that running the hotel was a real adventure. "Rum runners from the States came up through the prairie trails from Montana and stayed at the hotel. They loaded their cars [with bootleg liquor] and set off for the south, usually on a Sunday morning. ... I remember one of the bootleggers in particular would arrive with his wife and a couple of children who would act as a camouflage for the liquor. He was a fantastic jazz piano player. When he was in town the word soon spread and it was a night for dancing. Then came word that he had been killed in a gun battle with revenuers [US federal revenue agents involved in liquor law enforcement]." Source: Cadillac:A Prairie Heritage (1987), p. 226.

Off the Rails in Redvers

Bird's eye view of Redvers, no date. Source

In 1936, when P.R. and Sadie Johnson bought the King's Hotel in Redvers, the place was closed and boarded up. No sooner had the couple cleaned the place up and reopened the hotel for business, then a disaster - or perhaps a windfall - occurred. On May 2, 1936, one mile west of town, a freight train jumped the rails. Twenty-three cars left the track, killing 19-year-old Paul Delbrook of Manitoba, one of the many hobos who rode the rails during the Depression years. Within hours, scores of railway men from the eastern and western divisional points (Souris, Manitoba and Arcola) arrived to clear the track. As a result, the King's Hotel was full to capacity for several days, with many of the railway men sleeping on the floor. The Johnson's hotel business was off to a good start. Source: Redvers, 75 Years Live (1980), p. 15.