Yorkton Stories
A podcast hosted by Dick DeRyk about people and events, past and present, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan Canada, sponsored by Harvest Meats and Grain Millers Canada.
Episodes
38 episodes
About Dan the Storyman, Poetree and Friends, and ultra running
Dan Calef was, and sometimes still is, Dan the Storyman, known locally as the story-telling head of the Yorkton public library from 1983 to 1999. He looked after story time for kids, and told stories on local television in a show that ended up ...
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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36:24
Food security and 15 tons of potatoes
In the summer and fall of 2025, several factors came together, one of them out of the blue, to tackle and do more about hunger and food insecurity in Yorkton.The first was in early summer when the city of Yorkton hired a barriers to acce...
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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32:13
Yorkton Psychiatric Centre was a first (and cutting edge) in 1964
Those working in the field of psychiatry and mental health treatment across Canada and the United States came to Yorkton in 1964 and 1965 in large numbers to see for themselves how a new way of treating mental health patients was being implemen...
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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53:28
Kristopher Grunert: the magic of photography
Kristopher Grunert was born and raised on the family farm on Orkney Road, a short drive northwest of Yorkton. His parents, sister and he lived on land first established as the Grunert homestead in 1888. Farming, however, was not in Kris’ future...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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51:09
Sigga Houston: the purposeful life of a pioneer doctor
Dr. Sigridur (Sigga) Christianson Houston and her husband Dr. Clarence Joseph (CJ) Houston operated a medical practice in Yorkton for nearly 50 years, after a year in Watfort City, North Dakota. Both were graduates of the University of Manitoba...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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50:20
Metro Prystai: his life in his words
The hockey career of Yorkton’s Metro Prystai has been well documented. He had a storied career with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings over a span of 12 years in the 1940s and 50s, scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Red Wing...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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48:26
Yorkton, the volleyball factory of the 1980s
When it comes to Yorkton sports dynasties, the dominance of Yorkton volleyball teams and players in the 1980s stands out. Senior hockey had a good run with the Terriers winning three league titles and four provincial championships b...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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1:01:11
Alexa tells us about forensic pathology
We haven't asked Siri, the Apple virtual assistant, about forensic pathology. But we did ask Alexa -- no, not Siri's counterpart at Google, but Alexa Haider, who graduates this spring after four years of studies at Trent University in Pet...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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31:43
The changing face, and faces, of Yorkton
Almost sixty years ago, when I first came to Yorkton, it was a very "white" community where the names were predominantly Ukrainian, German or British, reflecting the founding and early settlement of this part of the prairies. Censu...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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1:14:42
Not your conventional clergyman
Shawn Sanford Beck -- born, raised and educated in Yorkton and area -- is now a pastor with the United Church in Saskatoon with a special mission. He was an Anglican priest, a position he left due to some unresolved conflicts with that denomina...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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36:41
Hamton SK: only memories and ashes remain
The village of Hamton is like many Saskatchewan communities between Yorkton and Canora… still on the map, but not really there anymore. But to say there is nothing left of Hamton is a mis-statement. It looks that way from the inters...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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26:34
Teaching sustainability and learn-by-doing in remote Africa
Lesotho, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is home to about two million people, including Ivan Yaholnitsky, whose family name is familiar in the Yorkton area. The Yaholnitsky family farmed south of Mikado. Ivan went to the University of ...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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45:57
Yorkton and computers: back in the early days, and now
It's almost 50 years since the first computers started being used in Yorkton. We talked with Andy Balaberda, the first local computer teacher, and Rick Coleman; he and Warren Gamracy were very early entrants into the business of computer sales ...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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41:53
Perry Ehrlich: the lawyer who has them singing and dancing
Perry Ehrlich left Yorkton in the early 1970s to attend the University of Saskatchewan. He became a successful lawyer in Vancouver, and continued to indulge in his love of music and performing; 30 years ago he founded Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! H...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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21:56
Yorkton's General, judge and more
This is the story of Alexander Ross – he had a middle name which started with the letter E, but in no sources, including when he was received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Regina, is his middle name mentioned. He was g...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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42:51
The challenge: motivating youth
Jason Payne has taught at the Yorkton Regional High School since 2002, but his involvement with youth and sports has expanded greatly beyond the boundaries of the school. His dedication to high school sports and youth sports in Yor...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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32:09
Dr. Brass Academies: a turnaround for a struggling school
In the 2010s, Dr. Brass elementary school in Yorkton was down to under 90 students, and consideration was being given to closing the school. It is one of the older schools in Yorkton and parents in the area preferred to send their kids to other...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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42:18
About co-ops and Cambodia
Cambodia is a country of 17 million in southeast Asia, sandwiched between Vietnam to the east and Thailand to the west, with Laos bordering it to the north. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas, and 57 per cent of households in...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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38:05
The homeless: we don't know their story
In Yorkton, where there are no homeless encampments, it would be tempting to think that it's one problem we don’t have to deal with. But that would be a mistake. Most of us may not see it every day, or at all, but homelessness happe...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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38:08
A tale of two barbershops
Ben and Tony's Barber Shop was an iconic institution in Yorkton from when the two shared a business starting in 1961 to Ben's retirement in 2008. Tony continued on his own until 2013. When he closed his shop, it provided the impetus, and inspir...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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45:39
When the news was printed on paper
The history of newspapers in Yorkton now spans 132 years, starting with The Messenger, published in 1892, two years before Yorkton officially became a village. It was written by hand on notepaper, and reproduced by stencil. But we ...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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59:54
Raising the curtain on community theatre
From early travelling shows that entertained settlers in the Yorkton area, to occasional local little theatre productions, Open Lit nights at the old Yorkton Collegiate Institute starting in the post WWII years, elaborate musicals performed by ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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1:02:01
Clay Serby: Reflections on life in politics
Clay Serby was first elected as the New Democrat member of the Saskatchewan Legislature for Yorkton in 1991. While he and Premier Roy Romanow had their differences initially, they became close friends, and Clay subsequently served in cabi...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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53:05
4 for Fore!
It is January in Yorkton, where a golf season of five months is considered a good year. We're still at least three months from teeing it up, but talk about the game seldom takes a break for golfers; it's a form of self-preservation to make it...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:16:13
The Balmoral Hotel... and those tunnels
The Balmoral Hotel on Livingstone Street was a Yorkton landmark for almost 90 years. It was owned in the early 1900s by Harry Bronfman, whose family later owned the vast Seagram empire founded on the production and sale of liquor. Their booze b...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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40:43