Maple Creek, Saskatchewan

Town in Saskatchewan, Canada

Maple Creek is a town in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan, Canada. It is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Maple Creek No. 111. The population was 2,176 at the 2021 Census. The town is southeast of Medicine Hat, Alberta, and north of the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on Highway 21 and south of the Trans Canada Highway. Maple Creek runs along the west side of town. The administrative headquarters of the Nekaneet Cree Nation is southeast of Maple Creek.

After the North West Mounted Police had been established at Fort Walsh, settlers began to explore the Cypress Hills area, living along the creeks and doing small scale ranching. The Department of the Interior was operating a First Nations farm on the Maple Creek, a few miles south from the present town site. In 1882 1883 the First Nations (mainly Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine) were moved to Qu'Appelle, and the farm was then operated by Major Shurtleff, an ex Mounted Policeman, and George Wood, his brother in law. In the winter of 1882, a Canadian Pacific Railway construction crew of 12 decided to winter where the town of Maple Creek now stands. This marked the establishment of Maple Creek. In June 2010, a flood submerged some of the town when Maple Creek overflowed its banks. The same flood hit much of southwestern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta and even destroyed a portion of the Trans Canada Highway.

Maple Creek experiences a semi arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). With the exception of southwestern Alberta, winters in Maple Creek are typically warmer than those in the adjacent plain region of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, being a convergence point for Chinook winds originating along the Rocky Mountain Front. The mean maximum temperature in January 2006 was 5.3 °C for the Maple Creek townsite, compared to 5.0 °C for Calgary and 4.7 °C for Medicine Hat. The highest temperature ever recorded in Maple Creek was on 29 June 1984.

The Sidney Street School and the Maple Creek Composite School serve the local community. Great Plains College operates a satellite campus in Maple Creek.