Royal Canadian Legion Branch 169 Free Community Book Exchange - Bienfait, Saskatchewan - Free Community Book Exchanges on Waymarking.com

This book exchange is well-kept and tidy, and it sits right along the sidewalk of a quiet town road. It is at the edge of a garden, and right down the street is the old historic railway station.

Bienfait is a small mining town in southeastern Saskatchewan, about 14?km east of Estevan on Highway?18. People began settling the area in the 1890s, shortly after coal deposits were discovered at Roche Percée in 1891. Although coal was noted along the Souris River as early as 1857, reliable mining didn’t begin until the late 19th century.

The Canadian Pacific Railway established Bienfait Mines Ltd. in the early 1900s, accelerating town growth. The settlement was incorporated as a village on April 16, 1912, and later became a town on March 1, 1957. It was named by the railway for Antoine Charles Bienfait, a banker with the Amsterdam firm Adolphe Boissevain & Co., which financed CPR stock sales in Europe—not after the French term “bien fait” (“well done”) as local lore once suggested.

Bienfait played a central role in the 1931 miners’ strike. Coal workers marched to nearby Estevan to press for better wages and conditions, resulting in the deadly Estevan Riot when RCMP opened fire on the demonstrators.

Coal mining remained dominant into the mid-20th century, transitioning from underground to open-pit strip mining around the 1950s. Bienfait contributed significantly to Saskatchewan’s coal production, supporting local families and farms alike.

Today the town of about 780 residents remains tied to coal mining, oil, agriculture, and nearby power generation. Its historic CPR station now houses the Bienfait Coalfields Historical Society Museum, and the vintage M&S Locomotive (#3522) sits at the north end of Main Street as a reminder of the town’s industrial past.

Location of Free Community Book Exchange: 506 Railway Ave Bienfait, SK Canada S0C 0M0 Rate the Community Book Exchange: Business Hours: Not listed Web Address or URL: Not listed Charter Number (of a Little Free Library): Not listed Geocache link: Not listed Extra Credit (for fun): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/24/2025 Cacher_Alec visited it