Carrot River takes its name from the Plains Cree words for river of wild carrots, a nod to the wild carrots that grew along the Carrot River. Settlement was slow at first. That changed in 1931, when the Canadian National Railway arrived and brought farmers up from the south. Roads and drainage ditches were built, which improved the land around the community.
Carrot River became a village in 1941 and was incorporated as a town on April 1, 1948. The town is home to the administration office of the Rural Municipality of Moose Range No. 486.
Work has long come from the land and the forests. The Weyerhaeuser sawmill was once the town's largest employer. In 2008 the company said it would close the mill for good, but Edgewood Forest Products bought it and began production of wood for China in 2011. Premier Sask Inc. harvests peat and runs a packing and shipping plant in town. In 1963 a hydro dam was built about 50 kilometres to the north, forming Tobin Lake. It is now called the E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Dam, and Carrot River is one of the few ways to reach the lake and the closest community to the station.
Close to town, Pasquia Regional Park is home to the Dickson Hardie Interpretive Centre and "Big Bert", the remains of a 92-million-year-old crocodile found near the park along the Carrot River. They were the first such remains found in North America. The town is also home to the Carrot River Outback Thunder Junior B hockey team.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Carrot River, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.