Arran History
Arran History
Thunder Hill, 4 kilometers wide, 12 kilometers long and 15 kilometers away, is a glacially formed mound dramatically rising 1900 feet above the flat prairie north of Arran. Authoritative sources claim that the hill frequently rumbles in late summer. Whether it's the old man of the mountain settling in for another long winter, or a disturbance in the clouds crowding their way around it, is unknown. Legend has it that it's he.
Arran is a special service area in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Livingston No. 331 and Census Division No. 9. It held village status between 1916 and 2022.
Come by the Hills
There is a time to be born, a time to live, and a time to die. The Ukrainian people like to sing and to dance, and to join in joyous celebrations. And they bond together closely in times of sorrow. Located on high ground against a poplar bluff a half mile south of the village of Arran is the Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery. It is the final resting place of the early pioneers and their descendants who turned the sod and tilled the soil in their struggle to build a new homeland. There were none wealthy amongst them, but they did what they could. They asked for little and gave a lot. It is home to infants, some whose innocent lives lasted but a few days; and home to those whose careers took them to the far corners of the earth but came home to their resting place; and home to ordinary people who lived, loved, labored, and left legends in the Swan River valley. Countless others built homes, raised families, leaving to return only for random visits to experience again the proud meaning of having come from Saskatchewan. This story is about them as well.