Gainsborough sits on Highway 18 in the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan, about 6 kilometres from the Manitoba border. Its first post office opened on April 1, 1884, under the name Antler. On September 1, 1885, the community was renamed Gainsborough, after Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in England, the former home of early settler J. J. Sadler. The settlement incorporated as a village on May 25, 1894.
Gainsborough Creek, a tributary of the Souris River, forms most of the village's southern boundary and is prone to flooding during the spring thaw. Most buildings in the village needed no unusual protection during the severe flooding of 2011 that affected nearby communities. In 2014, however, extended heavy rain brought flash flooding that forced everyone in the village to evacuate to neighbouring communities. The flood made national headlines, and Premier Brad Wall surveyed the area from the air.
Today Gainsborough is a farming community, with ranching and petroleum drilling services also providing income. Its Anglican Christ Church is on the list of historic places in Saskatchewan, and a privately owned museum of town history opens by request. Dr. William G. Hobbs, who practised at the Gainsborough Union Hospital, painted the main street in a work called "40 Below Zero" that won a national contest in 1978. The buildings in it are gone, and the site on Railway Avenue is now a park.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Gainsborough, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.