Melfort (2011 population 5,576) is a small Canadian city in Saskatchewan, approximately 95 kilometres (59 mi) southeast of Prince Albert, 107 miles (172 km) northeast of Saskatoon and 174 miles (280 km) north of Regina.
Melfort is called "The City of Northern Lights" due to the frequency with which the aurora borealis appears.
Just 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of current location of Melfort settlers established themselves on the banks of Stoney Creek before relocation due to the surveying of the Canadian National Railway. Melfort was named to honour Mrs. Reginald Beatty (née Mary Campbell, 1856–1916), wife of one of the early settlers (1884). She was born on the Melfort estate, south of Oban, in Argyllshire, Scotland.
Melfort's first post office was established August 1, 1892, in the provisional district of the North West Territories with Benjamin Bothwell as the first postmaster.
The community became a village in 1903, and incorporated as a town July 1, 1907. It finally became the twelfth city of Saskatchewan on September 2, 1980.
Three one-room school houses used the name "Melfort". Melfort School District No. 54, later called Tiger Lily No. 54 17, near Pleasantdale. (Pleasantdale post office was previously named Windgap and was located at Township 41, Range 18 west of the 2nd Meridian). Melfort School District No. 318 was established in 1904 at Clemens, Rural Route 1, Melfort. Melfort School District No. 1037 was the last one-room school house to use this name.[
