Wood Mountain takes its name from the Red River Métis words "montagne de bois," meaning mountain of wood in French. The name came from the abundance of poplar trees in an otherwise barren region.
The community was the end point of the Fort Ellice–Wood Mountain Trail, which was used from 1757 into the 1850s. Métis and First Nations people hauled provisions such as pemmican along the trail, which ran more than 400 kilometres. Wood Mountain incorporated as a village on March 4, 1930.
Farming and ranching have long been the base of the local economy, and those roots remain strong. Tourism has since become a main industry too. Visitors can see Wood Mountain Post Historic Park and the Wood Mountain Rodeo & Ranching Museum at Wood Mountain Regional Park.
The village is best known for the Wood Mountain Stampede, held at the regional park every year since 1890 and described as the oldest continuous annual rodeo in Canada.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.