Denzil Saskatchewan was founded about 1910 and this roughly corresponds with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The town is along a branch line that runs southeast-ish from Macklin to Kerrobert and a little beyond. In the past it went even further east and there were a number of connecting lines.

Back in the day, the railway was the driving force behind the creation of many prairie towns. The track remains in use to this day, but traffic is sporadic and most of the lines it connected with it are no longer in service. Canadian Pacific has hinted they’d like to rid themselves of the branch, but so far nothing has happened.

There are two conflicting stories to how Denzil was named. The first suggests it’s to honour Lord Denzil, a Canadian Pacific Railway official. Research did not locate any records of such a person, or anyone with that last name connected to the railway.

“And the colors in here were, that was all, like, this royal blue. The bar, all those, like, the dark parts on there was fluorescent pink. Royal blue, fluorescent pink, brown, and this, like, light, light, like, pastel green. And I was like, what on earth? And, like, everybody’s like, you need to paint that place. Like, the paint is awful.

Everybody’s always saying how they love the colors in here now. It’s really, it’s uplifting. Yeah, and, like, people walk in, like, daily still. And they’re like, holy shit, are we in Denzil? This place has never looked this good.” – Jennifer, speaking about redecorating before opening.

The second tale suggests the town was after the son of a Norwegian settler called Ansel Olson. It is said that “Ansel” was misinterpreted as “Denzil”, due to the person’s heavy accent, and it stuck. Local records do not show anyone with the last name Olson and first Ansel, or even something close to that, and in this search so far we have come up empty.

The author of that section of the local history book, “Heritage of Hope”, published in 1985, went on to say that they could find no solid proof for the naming of the village. They rather coyly suggest that readers should draw whatever conclusion suits them. We will continue to research this, but at this point there is nothing conclusive.

The arrival of the rails spawned farming and ranching in the area and to this day this is what drives the local economy.

Denzil presently has a population of about 140. In 1913, shortly after the town was founded, the population stood at about 100. By the late 1920s that had doubled, and increased further to about 250 by the 1950s. After dropping for a time, the population returned to the 250 level in the 1980s, though since then there has declined.

“And the floors, there was three different layers of the floor. The pool table was so unlevel, like, you couldn’t actually play anymore. And this building leaks like crazy. That whole floor over there was rotten, so, we had to cut all that out, redo it. But we were like, you know, not bad. Then we started pulling up all the flooring where they repaired it. So it was three-quarter-inch plywood and then they shimmed it with hockey sticks cut in half. They used hockey sticks to level the floor! (how Canadian)“ – Jennifer, on peeling back the layers.

In the early days, Denzil had all the businesses you might expect. There were hardware stores, general stores, livery barns, lumber yards (including an early Beaver Lumber franchise), bank, cafe, pool hall, implement dealers, barber shops, butchers and garages. One garage remains in business to this day, and we were able to visit it briefly during our shoot.

At the peak there were six grain elevators down along the tracks, though today only one remains. In Denzil today, there’s a restaurant, credit union, the one remaining garage that we spoke of, and the hotel of course.

The Denzil Hotel dates to 1910 or 1911, depending on the record. That’s 110 years in business and still going strong! The building sits on the corner of Railway Avenue and Second Street. It is not immediately across from the former train station, which was usually the case, however, it as only a block away. If you stepped off a train, you could clearly see the hotel to your right.

Archival photographs suggest the town was quite busy early on.

Denzil has gravel streets and in places these quickly turn to mud when it rains. This gives rise to the term “Denzil Gumbo”.

“And then, you know, I’m over here. And so then John cut this big piece of subfloor out. And he’s standing over there. But he’s standing, and I could tell he’s, like, this much shorter. And he says I don’t even know what to do with this. So I go over there and he’s like, there’s a whole other floor underneath here. Yeah, trusses, everything, underneath, and then green linoleum. They just built an entire new floor over top of the old floor. The women’s bathroom, there’s a ramp. There’s a ramp into the kitchen. There’s a ramp coming in here. What is up with all these ramps? And I thought maybe it was, like, a handicap accessible thing. So every time the floor got wonky and somebody would buy it and do a reno, they just put a
whole new floor in and raise it higher” – Jennifer.

The town is on a gentle slope, with the hotel at the base and this has caused problems during downpours. It’s been the case for decades and one wonders if the constant water issues are what has brought about the obvious settling of the structure.

No doubt the venerable old building is still solid, but has many sags and tilts. Ramps up into the bar from outside, and down into the bathrooms, are a reminder of this. They were necessary when they releveled the bar floor in the past.

In the early days the hotel was said to have a well regarded dining room. Later there was a cafe, but it has been gone for quite some time now. However, there is still food service and the meals are yummy.

Denzil had their own phone system beginning in 1916 and out this way, that is fairly on. For the longest time there was phone booth in front of the hotel, but it vanished a while back.

“So June 13th is my birthday and that day we got this insane storm. It was like six inches of rain in an hour. We’re at the bottom of the hill, right? So all the water from up there came down. And then there’s the road here. So we kind of sit in a dip. The basement was almost filled with water. Water was coming down in here through that beam. It was coming down on the kitchen and it was so busy and it was my birthday. Everybody’s coming in and they’re like, happy birthday. And like yelling into the kitchen, I wouldn’t even come out of the kitchen. I just stood back there all day and I was crying. I just spent all of my inheritance on this place.” – Jennifer, speaking frankly of a particularly difficult day early on.

“And the gentleman who was the caretaker, who was our town caretaker, just passed away a few months ago. He would tell me stories about the, just what was going on at the bar. You know, games, gambling, probably land won and lost type of thing. But also, when it was the Stock Show dance, he said it would take him hours to clean off the straw stuck to drinks spilled on the floor. And he said, like, you just didn’t see anything like it. Those were the heydays of the bar.” – Veronica.

Somehow the hotel survived the Prohibition years (1915-1925 in Saskatchewan), thanks to the restaurant and the renting of rooms. The rules in Saskatchewan did allow the serving of light beers during this time, but many bars simply shut down or became eateries. Others resorted to selling alcohol under the table, but we’re not sure what happened here.

Beer Parlours did a booming business across the prairies in the post World War Two period and the Denzil Hotel was no exception. During this time the single level section on the left side of the building was added to expand the bar space.

Women were allowed in Saskatchewan bars officially around 1960, and at that time a second entrance was added. As with most establishments of that era, ladies could only enter with a male escort and sit in section set aside for them.

“The building has moved so much and the pressure as soon as you pull the windows to a certain point, it just breaks them. And then all the doors, as things have moved, they shaved off the top or the bottom. So every door is like totally different and none are square anymore.” – Jennifer, on the settling problems.

“I owned two hotels. One was in Guernsey and it‘s southeast of Saskatoon by Lanigan. I had that bar for a couple two and a half years. I had like a bunch of rooms and a hell of a good business there. There was a bunch of Potash mines, doing a bunch of renovations, on it so I had a big group of people there every night. It was packed, but then my brother and I were partners and he married a bitch…then we decided to split and sell out.” – Maynard, on being a hotel owner himself.

It was said owners would tolerate ladies sneaking into the tavern, even before the provincial rules allowed it. Denzil is off the beaten path, so it could happen without authorities being made aware.

The local history book lists a number of operators for the hotel from the early days, up to the publication of the book in the 1980s. The list includes the last names Keglovic, Allen, Gauthier, Sutherland, Meyer, Kreinke, MacKeechak, Vetter, Martin, Routers, Jenson, Petersen, Gizen and Bischoff, though likely not all were owners, and some were probably just managers. No doubt there were many others long forgotten.

When originally constructed, and until at least until the 1940s the hotel had a balcony on the second level facing Railway Avenue. There was also a hotel sign on the roof, oriented towards the tracks and the highway.

“I was in the Denzel Bar underage. The story is a little more innocent. The then owner at the time, Colleen, had a lady come and bring some fashions and a fashion show. We high school girls were modeling for her. Because it was a women’s, a ladies’ night.” – Veronica, with an incriminating photo of her looking stylish in the bar as a teen.

“The patio was full. There was people standing outside. This is a town of 140 people! There’s people lining up to get in here. Even my little kids are like, grandma would be so proud of you, mom…you’ve taken what is a basket case and made something good on a very tight budget.” – Jennifer, on realizing the hard work was paying off.

When travelling dentists or optometrists visited Denzil in the early days, they temporarily operated out of the hotel. The history book suggests they did their work in the hallway. Research suggests there never any other hotel in town.

They offering rooms again at the Denzil Hotel and we toured the premises. They are clean and very well kept. The old structure is showing some signs of its age and there are not a lot of plumb or level surfaces remaining. They joked that one can literally roll out of bed in the morning but that only adds to the character.

Current owner Jennifer, acquired the business earlier in the year and had her work cut out for her. Lots of time, sweat and money was needed to get it up to her standards, And more than a few tears. It’s clear in the interview and the resultant transcripts we’ve posted, that she put heart and soul into making this business happen. You could sense the emotion.

“I have been back in Denzel for 17 years. I live across the street from the house I grew up in…I’m raising my kids here. But even in my time in Calgary when I was young, I missed community. I missed people knowing who you were, saying hi when you go into the store or the post office or the credit union. And that’s that sense of community I have now working at the garage.” – Veronica, on coming home to Denzil after a time in the big city – she works at Polk’s in Denzil just up the street.

“I went to Red Deer, Lloydminister, Medicine Hat, Edmonton, a few places outside of Edmonton, like, all over the place, buying stuff for the hotel” – Jennifer, on travelling far and wide for the things needed to open the business.

The interview lasted over an hour (a near record) and she gave us far more than we could ever use in this piece. Bless her.

Jennifer is not local to the area, but from the East Kootenay region of BC.

Interestingly, not one but two wedding parties showed up the evening of our shoot. It got a little chaotic and we lost track of who’s who at times, but we all had a grand night. Everyone was dressed nice, the rain came down, the streets were muddy and no one really cared if things got ruined.

Denzil, Saskatchewan: Population around 140, is located in the Rural Municipality of Eye Hill, 250km west of Saskatoon. Nearby Macklin is 25km to the northwest.