Coulter

The village of Coulter was named after Frank Coulter, an early pioneer of the district. With the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1901, Coulter began to grow. The C.P.R. established a section house and station. There was also a livery barn, which was a necessity in every town, and a lumberyard which supplied materials for a number of houses and buildings  in the area. Alf Gould started a store in Coulter in 1903.
The first postmaster was Alf Gould 1904.Later,  A. E. (Edward) Andrews operated the post office from a building beside his Massey-Harris agency.
In 1903 Mr. E. Schneider started up a blacksmith shop. Mr. C. Carlton ran a boarding house. William Mee had an implement business. Rolston Large started a business in Coulter under the name of South Antler Steel Works, specializing in general repairs and machine works. About 1908 he built a boat in Coulter and launched it in 1909 on the Souris river.
The Western Canada Elevator Company built an elevator in Coulter which they operated until 1938.
 
Coulter in 1979
GPS Reading:

49* 05’ 21.04” N
100* 59’ 02.55 W

 

Coulter Area

 
 

 
 
 
 
Gould Store Building
Coulter
99.D.1.
1915

Built by Alf Gould

Other Occupants: 

Norman Gould
Jim McKague
Dandridge & McIvor
Howard Minne

 

Photo from “Our First Century”
 


 

Coultervale United Church
SE 22-1-28
99.B.1
1956
GPS:  N49.04412, W101.02597

Known as the South Antler Presbyterian Church until Union in 1925.

Original (1906) church struck by lightning and burned, 1956. Re-built.

 



Pool Elevator
Coulter
99.D.1.
1928

There once were two elevators in town.



 

Cameron Lake of the Woods Elevator
NE 31-1-27
99.D.3
1903
GPS:  N49.080862  W 101.078044


 
A small community was formed when the railway arrived.

The community of Cameron (also known as Cameron Siding) had a post office starting in 1903 with Postmaster W. D. Hamilton. This office closed about 1929.
In 1903 the foundation for a third elevator at the new town of Cameron on the Lyleton extension was laid.
A Lumberyard operated by Cameron & Ferguson was open until 1918.



 
 
Coultervale School
SE 16-1-27
99.E.1
1915
GPS:   49* 01’45.46” N  101*02’02.55” W

Municipal Designation M0200

“Being the largest school in the region, it offered high school classes for areas served by several neighbouring elementary schools. Once the centre of a small community, it now stands alone, visible from a nearby highway, overlooking the open prairie. “

Closed in 1958. Used as a community centre as well.



 
 
Fraser Cabin
Coulter Park, Sourisford
22-2-27
99.E.2
1885
GPS:  N49.13575, W101.00811

Built by H. Fraser on 4-2-27 west of the Principal Meridian in 1885, was donated by W. R. Cosgrove as a memento of pioneer days. Near the cabin and arch is a cairn erected by the Rural Municipality of Arthur commemorating the Canadian centennial year in 1967.
 


 

Penninsula School
NW 35-2-27
99.E.3
1897
GPS: N49.175419 W 101.003466

 

As of 1991 Peninsula School is now owned by a third generation Yeo of Calgary whose intention is to preserve it as a historical site. It still exists on site

Closed 1960



 
 

Sourisford School
NW 29-2-27
99.E.4
1897
GPS: 49* 7.109’N  101* 17.690’W

Closed 1931

Photo: Alann Fraser



 

 

United Church Cairn
Coulter
99.F.2.
1999




 
  
Coulter Schools Cairn
Coulter
99.F.1.
2000

 




 
 

Coultervale Cemetery
NW 22-1-27
99. F.3
1898
GPS: N49.05810, W101.02602
 
Surveyed in 1898
 


 

Sourisford Linear Burial Mounds
SE 22-1-28
99. F.4
1956
GPS:  N49.04412, W101.02597


The mounds at this site are remnants of the largest concentration of ancient burial mounds in Canada. Working with fragmented evidence provided by the expert work of Chris Vickers and Richard McNeish, Dr. Leigh Syms pieced together a theory of the local mounds and placed them in the Devil’s Lake Sourisford Burial Complex.

The idea of burial mounds spread from the Mississippian cultures to the south along with their exotic trade goods found in this area. They varied in shape from small mounds to the large composite linear mounds joined by long grades like the ones in this field. Most round mounds were built well above the flood plain and had one or more circular or oblong pits often covered with a layer of clay, poles and sods. Some accumulative mounds had intrusive “bundle mounds” scattered throughout.  Artifacts in the structures included incised stone tablets, clay mortuary vessels and shell gorget masks made from Gulf Coast conch shells with the “forked eyemotif”, representing a Thunderbird design.

Dr. Syms speculates that the Natives interned their casualties of the harsh winter at the site that coincided with the spring migration route of the bison herds. The deceased were ceremoniously buried when the ground thawed – an event of cooperative behavior and cultural importance.

From the interpretive sign at the site.



 

Alfred Gould House
Coulter Park
99.G.1
1902
GPS: 
49* 05’ 21.04” N
100* 59’ 02.55 W

Built by Sourisford Pioneer, Alfred Gould.
 

 



Gainsboro Creek Bridge
NE 28-2-27
99. M.2
1920’s
GPS: N49.15864  W101.17.04840

On an abandoned section of Highway 83.



 

Coulter Park
Sourisford
99.J.1.
GPS:  N49.13575, W101.00811



In November 1928, pioneer Francis Coulter donated to the Arthur Pioneers Association this site south of Melita where he had settled, in April 1882. It became known as Coulter Park, or Sourisford Park, after the nearby crossing on the Souris River. It was Western Canada’s oldest park. Years earlier, in 1873, the site had been a camping place of the Boundary Commission demarking the border between Canada and the United States. Local settlers held a picnic here in 1882 that became an annual event.



 
  
Coulter Village
SE 2-2-27
99.M.1.
1901 – with the arrival of the CPR.



Named for Francis Coulter
See P. 308 – “Our First Century”



 

Sourisford Bridge
NW 19-2-27
1970’s
GPS:  N49.13575, W101.00811

The crossing of North Antler Creek at Coulter Park, Sourisford



 


Snyder Dam
34-2-27
1988
GPS:  N49.172711  W 101.030791


 

Damaged by floods