Sitting in the east-central part of Saskatchewan, Melville occupies a position roughly 145 kilometres northeast of Regina and about 45 kilometres southwest of Yorkton. The city is bordered by the rural municipalities of Cana No. 214 and Stanley No. 215, and it falls within the provincial constituency of Melville-Saltcoats, currently represented by Saskatchewan Party MLA Warren Kaeding. At the federal level, the city is part of the Yorkton-Melville riding, with Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall holding the seat in the House of Commons. The mayor of Melville is Joe Kirwan.
A Railway Town With a Titanic Connection
Melville owes its name to Charles Melville Hays, who was president of the Grand Trunk Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway at the time the settlement was first being built. Hays died when the RMS Titanic sank, having been a passenger on board. The area’s earliest post office was known as Pearl Park, established in 1905 near Pearl Creek, a tributary of the Qu’Appelle River. The community was formally declared a city by the province in 1960, having been founded in 1908. That railway heritage remains visible today: Canadian National Railway and Via Rail both operate through Melville, with the transcontinental Canadian train stopping at the Melville Railway Station twice weekly in each direction. Via Rail passengers heading to Regina rely on Melville as their primary rail-to-bus connection point. The Melville Railway Museum, dating to around 1911, is listed as a Municipal Heritage Property on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
Population, Heritage, and Community Life
With a population of 4,493 recorded in the 2021 Census, Melville is Saskatchewan’s smallest city by population, a slight decline from the 4,562 residents counted in 2016. The city covers a land area of 14.78 square kilometres, giving it a population density of approximately 304 people per square kilometre. The Melville Heritage Museum occupies the original building of Luther College – formerly known as Luther Academy – which was constructed in 1913 before the institution relocated to Regina in 1926. Healthcare in the community is anchored by St. Peter’s Hospital, built in 2002, with origins going back to 1940 when it was founded as a municipal hospital by the Sisters of St. Martha, an order based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Adjacent to the hospital is St. Paul Lutheran Home. On the sports side, the city fields two teams called the Melville Millionaires: a hockey club competing in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, and a baseball team that played in the Western Canadian Baseball League until 2019.