Maple Creek is named Canada's Greatest Western Town

The Town of Maple Creek is making its mark in Southwest Saskatchewan and has been named Canada's Greatest Western Town.

Royce Pettyjohn is the Main Street Program Coordinator in Maple Creek and says it all started a few weeks ago when they found out they were nominated for the competition.

"We were really excited when we beat out some of the major centers like Calgary and so forth for that honour. When we made it into the top four we were quite pleased. We never really imagined that we would go all the way to number one," said Pettyjohn.

The online contest was sponsored by Western Horse Magazine and Maple Creek ended up beating out Ponoka, Alberta in the final two.

"The town of Maple Creek has been traditional been known as the Old Cowboy Town as Maple Creek. They have always prided themselves on their rich and authentic heritage. This really helps put not only Maple Creek on the map but southwest Saskatchewan," said Pettyjohn.

For the town it was really just an honour to be nominated says Pettyjohn.

"The competition was undertaken in a spirit of good fun and the 32 communities that were all put forward all had very rich ranching and western heritage traditions and we just want to congratulate them as well in their nomination."

Pettyjohn credits the community support of Maple Creek and surrounding areas like Swift Current and Medicine Hat that came together to vote for the winning town.