Willow Bunch is one of the oldest settlements in Saskatchewan. Métis families, many of them of First Nations and French or Scottish descent, began moving into southern Saskatchewan from the Red River area in search of bison. After fires on Wood Mountain in 1879 and 1880, they settled on the eastern slope of the hills at a place they called Talle de Saule, meaning "clump of willow." The willows were useful for everything from baskets and snowshoes to smoking meat, and the name became Willow Bunch. Trader Jean-Louis Légaré opened a store there in 1881, and Édouard Beaupré, later known as the Willow Bunch Giant, was the first child born and baptized in the area that year.
A village called Bonneauville grew up about two miles east of Légaré's store around a Catholic chapel finished in 1884, and the North-West Mounted Police built a barracks there in 1886. When the bison were gone, ranching became the mainstay, led by Légaré and the Bonneau family, though drought, fires and brutal winters hit herds hard. Farming slowly took over. In 1905 the parish moved to the present townsite, on land from Légaré, and a new church followed in 1906. A hospital opened in 1909, the rural municipality held its first meeting in 1910, and the Sisters of the Cross convent was completed in 1921. A rail line arrived in the 1920s, and grain elevators and local coal mines served the area.
Willow Bunch became a village in 1929 and a town in 1960. The Willow Bunch School became bilingual in 1969, and French remains a mark of the community alongside its Métis heritage. The museum, founded in 1972 and now in the old convent, tells the story of the town and area, with exhibits on Édouard Beaupré, the pioneers, the Métis and more. Agriculture is still the area's largest industry.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.