Vanguard began in 1910, when the Canadian Pacific Railway bought the land for the townsite from Latimer Young. The community incorporated as a village on July 8, 1912.
The name may come from the village having been on the vanguard of the railway in 1912, but it is also a name with a Royal Navy tradition. Lord Nelson had a ship called Vanguard, and more recent accounts say the village took its name from HMS Vanguard, commissioned in 1909 and lost to an explosion in 1917. Whatever the true source, the naval heritage shows in the north-south streets: Armada, Victory, Triumph, Drake and Nelson. The east-west streets honour the province (Saskatchewan Avenue), the prairie landscape (Prairie Avenue), the railway (Railway Avenue) and the hopeful spirit of the founding years (Progress Avenue). Division Street cuts through the village, and the main street is called Dominion.
Today agriculture drives the local economy, with chick peas, lentils and red spring, hard and durum wheats grown around the village. Vanguard Community School serves local students. Writer and broadcaster James Minifie, who reported for the New York Herald Tribune and the CBC, called Vanguard home. Former premier Woodrow Lloyd was once a principal here, and NHL goaltender Al Rollins was born in the village.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Vanguard, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.