The Washakada Indian Home at Elkhorn opened in mid-summer 1888, with capacity for 16 boarders. It occupied four surplus town lots donated by the CPR. Rev. Wilson successfully appealed to the Indian Department for $6,500 in capital funding and an annual per capita grant of $100 for up to 80 pupils as the school was expected to expand. Ottawa’s few conditions were not enforced, freeing Rev. Wilson to manage the school his way. The following year the government secured farmland for the school, 8 km west of town. Its distant location proved to be impractical for students to engage in farming and this acreage was soon rented out.
In 1891, the new Kasota Home for Boys opened and the previous co-ed boarding school became the Washakada Home for Girls. However, Rev. Wilson was unable to meet the expected enrolment and both schools incurred mounting debts. He relinquished trusteeship of his schools to the Indian Affairs Department the same year.
Fire destroyed most of the school complex in 1895, except for the Boys’ Home. Temporary buildings were rented in town and the school carried on in a dysfunctional manner. Indian Affairs recognized the need to rebuild and relocate quickly. The new Elkhorn Industrial School opened in 1899 on a large tract of land southwest of town, below the CPR. A major three-storey addition was added in 1912. Farmland adjacent to the school was soon under cultivation and used for pasture.
Operational losses continued to plague the school. By 1910, Indian Affairs was eager to transfer administration to the Diocese of Rupert’s Land, but Archbishop Samuel Matheson’s steep conditions for capital improvements and funding support could not be met. The government finally closed the school in 1919 and transferred the property to the Soldiers Settlement Board who used it for two years as a training centre for ex-service men. With renewed interest in re-establishing the residential school, Indian Affairs acquired title to the property again and, in 1922, concluded negotiations with the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada (MSCC) who would henceforth operate the school until its permanent closing in 1949.
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