A dedicated group has been preparing for Richard's celebration of its centennial for months, and a long list of events has been planned for an Aug. 6 homecoming.
Hoping for attendance into the hundreds, organizers will be manning the registration desk starting at 8:30 a.m. The organizing committee has been formed through the local recreation board.
The festivities will kick off with a parade at 10 a.m. It's been 25 years since Richard's last parade, held to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Information on the parade can be obtained from Arnold Combres at 306-246-4737 or Blair Combres at 306-246-4979. Centennial committee member Darlene McDonald says they expect entries from horses to vehicles and everything in between.
While some people may drive in for the day, there will be space available for those who want to camp out, although it will not be serviced. There will also be some arrangements made to assist seniors with transportation around the site.
Throughout the day, there will be historical displays in the hall.
Food will also be available throughout the day.
In addition, there will be beer gardens, musical entertainment, children's activities and old-fashioned games, including a pick-up ball game.
A raffle and 50/50 draws will also be held and a limited amount of Richard T-shirts will be available.
There will be a catered supper at 6 p.m., for which guests must be pre-registered, and a dance will follow. Organizers have been taking registrations for the last several months and have a Facebook page.
One of the highlights of the homecoming will be a walking tour of Richard, says McDonald. It will be self-guided with maps made available. With the help of many seniors, says McDonald, sites have been identified and signs with information will be posted to make the walking tour as informative as possible. The tour will include the foundations of Acadia House, a fine brick home built by the town's namesake in 1917 for $35,000.
At various times, Richard boasted five elevators, two restaurants, a hotel, two implement businesses, telephone company, a brick bank and even a milliner. Only a few buildings are left now, as well as a number of dwellings, on the approximately seven-acre town site. There is still a hall, however, and a curling rink, as well as ball diamonds and a post office. While the town is no longer bustling, the hometown spirit remains intact as area residents look forward to August's celebration.
Richard was founded in 1900 by Emile Richard, an adventurous pioneer who settled in the area after years spent travelling and trading in buffalo hides, prospecting and trapping between times of running stores and trading posts from Battleford to the Peace River country.
He had inherited a wanderlust from his family, leaving his home in Arthabasca, Que. when he was 18. His daughter, Yvette, wrote in the area's history book, Richard Remembers, "The call of the West had come to many of his relatives. His two brothers were already settled in Winnipeg; his cousins, one of whom was Senator Prince, migrated to Battleford … These men were all well equipped for their new life – hardy, resourceful, bilingual."
Emile's father had fostered with an Irish family for a year, so that he would became fluent in English as well as his mother tongue of French.
Emile Richard's early life read like a storybook.
Yvette wrote, "During the long winter nights, when we were very young, our father would gather us about him. His bedtime stories to us were not Mother Goose rhymes but the authentic adventures of his younger days. It is a pity that he never wrote his memoirs – swash-buckling episodes that earned him the title of ‘Buffalo Bill’ through the land. There were heart-warming stories and hair-raising adventures in the Rockies, in the Peace River district where he trapped for furs, on the prairies with the Indians who roamed the land – true stories, every one, that he told so delightfully. l do believe that in all the history of Saskatchewan's early days, there is no more colourful figure than our dad.
"He saw the rails laid for our first transcontinental railroad, smoked the pipe of peace with Sitting Bull and his tribe, traded furs with the Indians, spoke to them in their own language, befriended them all and became to them the criterion of what a white man should be: fair, honourable and true to his word. They called him Shaniawapit (the Golden Tooth) and his name and integrity were known to the tribes from one end of the land to the other."
There came a time, in 1880, that the wandering Emile decided to settle down. He set up a ranch in the Eagle Hills, across the North Saskatchewan River from what is now Maymont. He stocked his ranch with horses and cattle.
He married in 1896 and began a family.
Soon, his herd had outgrown his ranch.
In his own biography, published in Richard Remembers, he wrote, "In 1900, my herds getting larger, I had to find pastures anew. After much travelling in quest of such land, I found the ideal place at Green Bluff, which is now Richard, and I can say I never regretted the change. When I crossed the river in 1900 to the new ranch there, I had 500 head of cattle and one hundred horses, which I increased in a few years to a thousand. At last, I was settled for good. I built my house in 1901 and brought my family to it in July."
The land around him soon began to fill up with settlers, and ranching became more difficult. He eventually sold off his herd but continued to farm.
Buildings began to appear on the townsite in 1914, including the first elevator. A post office had already been established in 1904 (in Emile's home originally) and the village was incorporated in 1916. The peak population of 151 was attained in 1936.
Emile and his wife lived in Richard until 1935, when Acadia house burned down. They moved to Montreal to live with his daughter Evette and Emile died in 1942.
