You never heard of the Barr Colony, you say? You're in good company, as mention of the Barr Colony often generates a blank look even among Canadian historians. The Barr Colony was the last great emigration scheme in English/North American history. Almost 2,000 English men, women and children emigrated to the prairies of western Canada in 1903, crossing the ocean from Liverpool to St. John New Brunswick and continuing by train, wagon and foot to an area set aside for them in what is now Saskatchewan. Theirs is a story of good intentions but poor planning, internal strife that unfairly villified one leader and exaggerated the virtues of his replacement, winter storms and summer mosquitos, settlers who brought pianos instead of plows. As Lloydminster, the city founded by the Barr Colonists, nears its centennial, it seems a good time to re-examine the story of its beginnings.
The word spread quickly in England that a veritable promised land awaited settlers in Canada. Each colonist would be given free land, said the pamphlets. In an already crowded England at the turn of the century, ownership of land was for the rich and privileged. The prospect of free land might by itself have been sufficient to attract large numbers of people. But England was facing economic depression in the aftermath of the Boer War, and many young men saw little hope of good jobs. Hundreds of families responded to the advertising with advances of money and reservations for the trip.