Sandilands Community Club wants your help collecting history of the area

The Sandilands Community Club is hoping to collect some more historical data on the area with help from the community. 

Laurie Taylor, President of the Sandilands Community Club, explains why. 

“We have a pretty vibrant history here in Sandilands, but we have very little documentation or evidence of that history.”  

The oldest map that Taylor has been able to find Sandilands on was from 1903, so Sandilands has been around for a while. 

She says Sandilands was settled by Ukrainian, French, and Métis people at that time.  

Taylor knows the people were into forestry, but says it's been difficult to find records.  

“We are really depending on the community to go through some of the old picture books, or go take a mental load of some of their memories and stories from the area, because none of it has been written down.” 

Taylor is personally looking forward to receiving entries of folklore. 

“I'm a big folklore fan. And verbal history of the area is sometimes far more interesting than any kind of documentation or whatever else you can find, so I'm particularly interested to hear those kinds of stories.” 

She is starting this project because of her love for the area. 

“Sandilands is amazing, it's a really beautiful environment out here. We've got thousands of trails around the town that people love to come and visit, and for some of the people in the area, they've got family history here going back about 120 years.” 

Taylor says Sandilands used to have a school, church, various stores, and a post office. 

“None of that is here anymore. It would be really great to find some kind of evidence of those buildings or the people that attended those buildings and put them together so that we could commemorate our history here.” 

She notes the Sandilands Forestry Reserve is a really fascinating area, but with the Tree Planting Car gone, it almost feels like a part of the area’s history has been taken far away. 

“So it would be great to have some celebration about our past, our history, and our cultural diversity.” 

If you would like to submit something, you can email sandilandscommunityclub@gmail.com, contact them on their Facebook Page: Sandilands Community Club, or send it by mail at post office box 45 in Sandilands with Postal Code R0A 1W0. 

With files from Carly Koop