Beechy's story begins early in the 20th century, when ranchers first settled the area. Robert Cruikshank is acknowledged as the first settler. From the 1910s, the wave of European immigration to the Canadian prairies brought more people, who took up ranching and farming, which remain the main activity around Beechy today.
In 1919 the Canadian National Railway surveyed the area and judged it an ideal place for a marketplace. Work on the line began, and word of the coming railroad stop drew merchants. The first train arrived on December 21, 1921. The first grain elevator went up in 1922, and Beechy incorporated as a village on May 11, 1925.
Community life took shape early. One of the area's first baseball teams formed here in 1911, and the Beechy Breakers still play today. The first agricultural fair was held in 1922, and the agricultural society was chartered in 1945. Beechy's first organized hockey team played in the winter of 1935-36, and after World War II the returning servicemen, including the whole team, started the Beechy Bombers. Today the biggest event is the Beechy Western Days rodeo, first held in 1968.
Health care began with a single medical practitioner and a small hospital in a private home. The Beechy Union Hospital opened in 1966 and closed in 1991, and the building now serves as a clinic.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Beechy” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.