Long before there was a town, the land where Arcola stands was part of the Fort Ellice–Wood Mountain Trail. From 1757 into the 1850s, fur traders, Metis and First Nations people used it to carry supplies, including pemmican, between the buffalo hunting grounds near Wood Mountain and Fort Ellice. The trail ran along the south side of the Moose Mountain Upland. The Palliser expedition passed through in 1857, and the North-West Mounted Police came this way in 1874 on the March West. A plaque on the north side of town marks the trail.
Settlers first built a community called Clare, two miles north-east of today's Arcola. In early 1900 the CPR announced its line would run south of Clare, and almost all of its buildings were moved. For four years Arcola was the end point of the southern branch line running west from Souris, Manitoba, and it became an important hub for westward migration. At one point it was the 11th largest town in what is now Saskatchewan, and many expected it to become a city.
Bricks from the town's own brick plant went into many of the homes and buildings put up in those boom years. Today they earn Arcola its name as Saskatchewan's "Heritage Town," and several, including the Town Hall and Opera House of 1905 and the Court House of 1908 to 1909, are on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. Arcola marked its 100th anniversary in 2003, two years older than the province. The town was also the setting for the film of W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind, and author James Sinclair Ross wrote As for Me and My House here.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Arcola, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.