Nestled along Highway 19 roughly 100 kilometres south of Saskatoon, Strongfield sits within the Rural Municipality of Loreburn No. 254 in Census Division No. 11. The village is flanked by its neighbouring communities of Hawarden to the west and Loreburn to the east, placing it at the quiet heart of a stretch of central Saskatchewan prairie. The surrounding landscape holds considerable geographic interest, as the area lies near the South Saskatchewan River and the man-made Lake Diefenbaker, which was formed by the Gardiner Dam – one of the largest earth-filled dams anywhere in the world.
Strongfield’s roots reach back to 1903, when the great wave of western settlement began drawing homesteaders to the Canadian prairies. The land was first surveyed by government surveyor J.A. Maddock and his crew between May and July of 1883, shortly after the former Hudson’s Bay Company lands were organised as the Northwest Territories. The village formally incorporated on May 3, 1912, and for decades it served as a busy economic and social centre for the surrounding region, supporting an elementary school, a post office, car and farm equipment dealerships, two Saskatchewan Wheat Pool grain elevators, and several small restaurants and shops. A notable portion of the early settlers came from the Markdale-Meaford area of Ontario, drawn in part through the influence of agent George Armstrong, a Markdale businessman. Finnish settlers from the Dakotas also formed a significant segment of the early population, many of whom took homesteads along the banks of the South Saskatchewan River. The Saskatchewan Valley Land Company, formed by Col. Davidson and A.D. McRae, played a key role in promoting settlement by purchasing and reselling vast tracts of prairie land. Today, Strongfield is home to approximately 40 residents. The school and most of the original businesses are long gone, but the village retains a hockey rink, a curling rink, an Elks lodge, a café, a post office, and a small United Church. At the centre of the village stands a cenotaph honouring Strongfield’s soldiers who fell in both World Wars.