The Marengo Hotel is located on the corner of Main Street and 1st Avenue, about a block off of Railway Avenue. It is one of only a handful of buildings left in what was downtown, so will not miss it.

A post office opened in the area around 1910, but the town that soon grew up around it took the name Melbourne. Soon after founding it had an identity crisis and in quick succession the named changes a couple times. Soon after it became Marengo and then Fuller. Later in 1913 it reverted back to Marengo and this time stuck. The names Basil and Jonesville are also listed and this created no end of confusion during our research. The community is named after another in Illinois and is where the first postmaster immigrated from.

Like most other prairie towns, Marengo was founded as a direct result of the railway coming to the area. In this case it was the Canadian Northern Railway line constructed from Saskatoon to the Drumheller area, with further connections to Calgary and Edmonton. The line was formally opened for traffic by 1913 and this was just as the town was coming to life.

“It hadn’t been open for like a year or more (prior to us). And previous to that, it had been sporadically open. So a lot of the customers go, oh, I didn’t realize this place was open again.” – Penny.

“So there was this guy, I don’t know how he did it, but he had himself a cheetah and he would bring it around to local watering holes. And she was such a doll.
Like this cat, this big cat would just sit on the pool table and chill. You could just come up and pet it. There’s this fricking jungle cat and it was essentially just a big house cat.” – Brendan.

A few short years later, around 1920, the financially strapped Canadian Northern Railway was amalgamated with several other lines and became Canadian National. The line through Marengo still exists, but currently is only a stub from Saskatoon, terminating just west across the border in Oyen, Alberta.

Into the 2000s the line was a vital link between Saskatoon and Calgary, but today only serves local customers, mostly grain shipments, including from the active grain terminal in Marengo. The Marengo elevator included some older wood parts cobbled together with some modern components. Most of the old wood elements burned in a massive, spectacular fire a few years back, leaving only the modern bits behind, which are still used.

Information about the early population of Marengo has been difficult to come by. What we were able to obtain suggested that the population may have surpassed 100 once or twice in the early days. For the most part, however, the number remained below that threshold. It stayed between 60 and 90 for most of the last 50 years. Old bird’s eye photos of the town site show that is has remained about the same size since its founding. It is about five or six blocks wide by two blocks deep.

The local economy is mostly agriculture based, with some oil and gas as well. There is a large school in town that serves both students from town and outlying areas.

“It was the 80s and the bar here was booming. I’d wake up in the car as a kid and wonder what’s going on? My mom and dad would be in here just having fun. They would come back out, and I’d be like, when are we going home? And they’d be like, five more minutes…it was always five more minutes.” – Joshua, on waiting on the folks out in the car, a ritual many rural kids have known.

“So this (the floor) was all red carpeting and (pointing) that’s where we hid the porn when we were renting movies…” – Brendan, on random memories, including the time they operated a movie rental place out of the hotel – oddly, carpets were not uncommon in bars in the 1970s/1980s period.

“My husband shook her hand out front before we’d ever even walked in the bloody door and suddenly we owned this place…okay, well, we decided we’d take a shot at running a bar.” – Penny, on how sometimes it happens in a blink of an eye – after more than a dozen years there is talk of selling.

In the past the town had all the businesses and services one would expect. The history book speaks of service stations, a bank, barber shop with pool hall, general store, bakery, lumber yard, restaurant, implement dealer and a hotel. Not the same hotel we see today, which was the general store later repurposed, but one further down Main, by the tracks.

In 1910 the Balmoral Hotel was constructed on the southeast corner of Railway and Main. Sometimes referred to as the Hotel Marengo, it was a large three story affair and the most prominent structure on Main.

Strangely the railway station was not located immediately at the end of Main Street and across from the Balmoral, but rather a block to the west. Almost without fall Main and Railway was the location for the depot, other than the odd exception like here.

This first hotel was significantly larger than a town with the population of Marengo would have required and this suggests the owner was optimistic that growth here was to be rapid and assured. The building was lost to fire in the early 1930s. Later a service station and garage was constructed on the site, but today it is just an empty lot. The old concrete pump island remains in the grass, however.

A few years later, in 1936, the general store was converted to the new Marengo Hotel. Local beer aficionados must have been relieved to have a tavern reopen in the community. The building started out as the Jones Grocery about 1911. Historic photos from that era shows it looking very new and in an unpainted state. In form it appears much the same then as it does today.

Several owners are listed after Harry Jones left around 1918. Finley Mann and John Sample are two names associated with the business, but the dates are unclear.

“Behind we had all those racks and we used to sell cigarettes back there. Oh yes, there was always a blue haze in the bar. My dad loved pinball. I remember the ghost and goblins arcade cabinet was right there… and a pinball machine.” – Brendan.

“My wings are pretty awesome, actually. You can only get them on Fridays, and it’s dine-in only. So, you make it special” – Penny – wing night is the most popular & people come in from many neighbouring towns on that night – online ratings confirm they are good.

At some point in the 1970s (it is believed), the building received a single story addition on the south side and this was used to expand the bar. Later still a patio was added.

Fast forward to today and the Marengo Hotel Bar & Grill is the last operating business on Main Street. There is a post office in the town offices, a block over, and a card-lock fuel station down by the highway, but these are the only other business offering services to the general public in town. Downtown Marengo is pretty empty and historical markers indicate the location of many of the former businesses.

The names of some of former owners of the Marengo Hotel have been confirmed. Tom Quigley operated the business from opening until 1948 and then Anton Schmalzbauer took over from 1948 to 1957. There is a gap in the information for a couple years and then from 1960 to 1980 the Walz family were proprietors. There came a flurry of owners from 1980 on and this included Phil McKaig, Bill Davies, R Ellis, E Lloyd and G Holmes, Stan Hein and finally Yvonne Henry. We were unable to confirm exact dates. Current owner Penny and her husband acquired the hotel about fourteen years ago now.

“For years I was here, they were renting out constantly, every single room. It was crazy. They kept me alive them first couple of years, when you’re like really scrambling to make profit, because you’ve put out so much money. They actually kept the business alive. They were redoing the grain elevator over here, so I had their crew stay here. But then again, COVID hit, then oil tanked and now I rarely rent rooms out anymore.” – Penny.

“My mom and dad bought the bar, the hotel here, from their family friends the Ellis’ in 1989, I was eight, So I grew up in this place…(my folks) had it till 2001. I’ve got a very soft spot for this hotel. Unfortunately we had to declare bankruptcy and that’s what ended our run here. It’s a really special kind of thing…I mean, living in a hotel…how many people can say that?” – Brendan, on growing up living the hotel – his family lived in several of the rooms, whereas the others were still rented out.

“It does wear you out. Because you don’t have a life while you’re doing it. Like, we haven’t had a holiday in 13 years. Our boat hasn’t been in the water in 13 years. It’s just sitting in the shed, getting dust on it. That kind of makes you cry a little every time you walk by it.” – Penny, on how owning a hotel dominates your life.

The Marengo Hotel still rents rooms, but not in the traditional sense. Mostly it is just to temporary workers employed in the area, or seasonal hunters. Even then, it is not often nor heavily promoted. They are old style, simple, functional and small. There are about half a dozen units. This space would have been the residence of the former grocery store owner before it became a hotel.

In addition to the Beer Parlour, the hotel also operates as small convenience store of sorts. So chips, pop, ice cream treats and other snacks. In the past and with the previous owner they rented videos here. Remember when that was a big thing?

The Marengo Hotel is mostly a local hangout, but is also popular with the folks from nearby Kindersley, and Oyen just across the Alberta border, particularly on Wing Night. Families and kids are permitted until before it gets too late.

Marengo, Saskatchewan. With a population of around 70 and it is located in the Rural Municipality of Milton #292, 45km west of Kindersley, and about 22km from the Alberta border.

“And I’m standing there chit-chatting with the ladies while they’re getting my mailbox key ready. And I’m like, oh, well, you know, like, so like how many people actually live in Marengo? And one girl’s like, oh, 69 people. I ran all the way back here, basically kicked the hotel door open. We have made a mistake. Like, this is a huge mistake (the worry was the population was too small to support the business). But everybody in town is so supportive and the business did okay. I’ve lived a lot of places and this is probably one of the friendliest towns I have ever lived in.” – Penny, on having second thoughts at the start, but coming out of it okay.

“I kind of worked here for a little bit. I wanted to be a bartender and wanted to try this. Penny is so beautiful and she treated me so good. I learned so much about bartending. I never realized how hard the job is.” – Joshua.

“He’s a big guy (my dad) and can handle himself. When a couple men of broke in through the back door and tried to like make off with a bunch of cigarettes, he came running. My dad caught them in his underwear. So he comes out here in his holy blue boxer briefs with a sawed off pool cue because that’s what the peacemaker was named, and drove them out. The cops came and everything. And, uh, yeah, they would’ve got away with more than a half carton of cigarettes if dad hadn’t showed up looking like an angry, naked man. Never anger a guy working in a business that doesn’t have huge return.” – Brendan.