Macoun grew up along the rail line in southeastern Saskatchewan. After a Soo Line extension in 1898 linked more settled parts of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota with the Canadian Pacific line, a stretch of land along the tracks became a favourite of incoming land seekers. It eventually appeared on railway maps as Macoun.
The village is named for John Macoun, an Irish-born Canadian naturalist, botanist and explorer who studied the prairies on behalf of the Canadian government. Macoun incorporated as a village on October 16, 1903.
On April 20, 1914, an acetylene gas plant exploded in the cellar of the Macoun Hotel, and the fire that followed killed 13 people. Acetylene was widely used for lighting in the early 1900s.
Today Macoun sits on Highway 39 in the Rural Municipality of Cymri No. 36, about 28 kilometres northwest of Estevan. Lenard Gustafson, a Canadian senator, politician Kim Thorson and journalist Gladys Arnold are among the notable people from the village.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Macoun, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.