The village of Loverna is located in western Saskatchewan, very close to the Alberta border. The area was settled around 1910 and a rail line was built west from Coleville in 1912. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway expanded through the region and by 1913, tracks had been laid and settlers followed quickly, spurring the development of businesses, homes, schools, and community facilities. A new village was developed and the Loverna post office was opened in the same year.
Loverna’s story is a common one, it grew rapidly with the arrival of the railway and the promise of agricultural prosperity, then gradually faded as transportation and economic patterns shifted across the Canadian West.
In its earliest decades, Loverna was a bustling small town. By the 1920s and 1930s, its population peaked around 400–500 people, bustling with hotels, shops, grain elevators, doctors, a newspaper, a hospital, lumberyards, pool rooms and social clubs. Sports were an important part of community life, with events like Sports Days, baseball games and curling matches bringing residents together.
However, Loverna’s prospects began to shift mid-century. Like many prairie towns, it was heavily dependent on the railway and rural agriculture. As highways improved and residents could travel to bigger centres for services, local businesses struggled. Fires in the town and the eventual abandonment of the railway through the area in the late 1970s and early 1980s accelerated the community’s decline.
By the early 2000s, Loverna’s population had fallen sharply: census counts recorded as few as five residents, leaving it close to full ghost town status. Today, the community exists as a quiet reminder of the boom years, a few scattered buildings, signage that marks where once-busy businesses stood, and the open prairie that surrounds it.
Visitors to Loverna can still see remnants of its past: old churches, a curling rink, heritage markers on the buildings and houses standing watch over streets that once bustled with life.
