Rama began as a rail siding and passenger platform, named in 1904 by Canadian Northern Railways. The name came from the Rama area of Ontario. Names such as Silver Hill were talked about when the village and school district took shape, but the existing name stayed. Long before that, the land just east of here around Good Spirit Lake had been reserved for Doukhobors, who settled eight communal villages there before most families left for individual homesteads or British Columbia.
Settlers began arriving around 1901, travelling by oxen and cart from the rail end at Sheho along the old Pelly Trail. Most were of Eastern European origin. Early families included the Landstads, Murrays, Deans and Lockharts, and John Berge, who became the first resident in 1907, the first postmaster in 1908 and the first chairman of the school district in 1909. Rama incorporated as a village on December 18, 1919, and its population peaked at 288 in 1961.
Over the years Rama saw a rural telephone service, a bus route from 1927, and passenger trains until 1960. St. Anthony's parish was incorporated in 1922, and St. Michael's Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church, built in 1936, is a designated historical landmark. Father Anthony Sylla began the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1939, and a pilgrimage has been held there each August since 1941. Today the village is a farming community, and it also hosts horse-drawn seeding and harvest demonstrations each spring and fall.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Rama, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.