Wawota is a community of 591 people, located along Highway 48

Saskatchewan Highway 48

Highway 48 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 1 near White City until the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border, where it becomes Provincial Road 257. Highway 48 is about 239 km long....

 in southeastern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Established in 1905, its name is from Dakota

Sioux language

Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit and Ojibwe.-Regional variation:...

 "wa ota", which means "lots of snow". Wa means 'snow', oda or ota means 'lots'. It is sometimes mistakenly said to mean 'deep snow'.

History

The town's motto, "Progress Through Perseverance", is fitting, as Wawota has made a concerted effort in the last few decades to remain a vibrant community for people of all ages, despite the ongoing challenges faced by nearly all rural towns in the province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

. The loss of the local railway, the so-called Peanut Line, in August, 1961 is often cited as a galvanizing moment for the community, and the dawn of the town's progressive spirit.

Regionally, Wawota is perhaps best known for its long history of successful sports teams, most notably in hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, as well as its unusual collection of fire hydrant

Fire hydrant

A fire hydrant , is an active fire protection measure, and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal water service to enable firefighters to tap into the municipal water...

s, painted to resemble various people and cartoon characters. Wawota is also noteworthy as the 'twin capital', due to the large number of twin births recorded in the community, particularly throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.

External links

• Wawota, Saskatchewan website