Ceylon, Saskatchewan

Ceylon /siːˈlɑːn/ is a village in The Gap Rural Municipality No. 39, Saskatchewan, Canada. The village had a population of 90 inhabitants at the 2006 Census.

Taken from Radville & Deep South Star

Ceylon and Hardy really started when the railroad arrived. The Canadian National Railway line came through in 1910, opening for service in July, 1911. The section between Ceylon and Hardy was completed on November 21, 1911. Ceylon had actually started up in 1910 north of where the tracks were eventually laid. When the town site was surveyed in 1911, it had to be moved to the south side of the tracks. With a great effort of manpower and horsepower (of the animal variety), the fledgling town was moved to its present location. The origin of the name Ceylon is still a bit of a mystery. It was given its name by the first postmaster in the area, John Aldred, who did not want the new town to be named after him. He may have chosen the name Ceylon in recognition of a CPR station of the name in Ontario, or it may have been named for a yacht that was owned by Scottish merchant Sir Thomas Lipton (whose name still graces tea bags to this day). Hardy was named for the great 19th century English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.

Some decades were better than the others. After the first years of backbreaking work cultivating the land, the first crops were harvested and prosperity came to the region.

The area suffered a setback from 1914 to 1918 when many young men left to fight in the Great War. A disproportionately high number of young men from the Ceylon area never returned home.

...
Wikipedia