Shiloh church given provincial heritage site status

The last remaining building from Saskatchewan’s first black settlement was named a provincial heritage site last weekend.

The Shiloh Baptist Church was once the pillar of a community made up of people escaping racial persecution in the United States.

Shiloh was founded in 1910.

Crystal Mayes is the great-granddaughter of Mattie Mayes, a freed slave who was among the first group of settlers. Her great-grandfather Joseph was the church’s first pastor.

She told Gormley that the church has been restored to look just like it did when it was built.

“If you go out there, it’s like you’re stepping back in history, so you really feel like you can have that sense of how it would have been back then,” she said.

She said she enjoys telling her family history. She finds that most people are surprised when they hear it.

“People are just amazed that there were black people here since 1910 in Saskatchewan,” she said.

Shiloh’s cemetery is also still standing. Mayes guessed that around 35 of the original settlers are buried there.

The church and cemetery are located on Highway 21, north of Maidstone. It can be reached via Highway 16 in between North Battleford and Lloydminster.