Pre-settlement

Prehistoric artifacts from Indigenous peoples including tipi rings, arrowheads and burial cairns have been found on Pakowki Lake's shores.^[4] Members of the Kainai Nation hunted in Pakowki during the 19th century, and interacted with whiskey traders from Montana who were active in the area.^[5]

Pakowki: 1908–1929

The Hudson's Bay Company surveyed lands including Pakowki for agricultural use between 1908 and 1911, then sold appropriate plots to homesteaders.^[4]

The area was populated enough by April 1912 that resident William Cronkhite established a post office to serve settlers in the area.^[6][7][8] The post office initially operated under the name Fourways, as it stood near the banks of Fourways Creek, which drains into Pakowki Lake.^[7][8]

The Canadian Pacific Railway established a siding in the area in 1915, which it named Pakowki after the lake.^[6][9] The post office relocated closer to the siding, and adopted the name Pakowki to match in September 1916.^[7][8][10]

In the two years after the railroad's introduction, Pakowki experienced rapid growth. Two grain elevators were established as local farms enjoyed "bumper" crop yields,^[4][11] followed by various stores and a hotel.^[9][11] Amenities included a Chinese restaurant, barbershop, and pool hall.^[9][11] Wilfrid Eggleston briefly worked in a general store within Pakowki.^[12] An Evangelical preacher was also assigned to the area to deliver sermons on Sundays.^[9][13] Historian Harold Fryer estimates that, at its peak, Pakowki had 200 residents.^[11]

However, Pakowki soon experienced dry weather and barren soil that resulted in poor crop yields for farmers.^[11][14] The land best suited to agriculture in the area lay to the north and east of the settlement.^[11] When the railway line reached the settlement of Orion in 1916, many of Pakowki's residents and businesses relocated there, including the hotel.^[11][14] By the end of 1917, few of the commercial operations that had set up around Pakowki's railway siding remained there.^[11]

Some farms remained active in Pakowki following the exodus to Orion, but drought throughout the 1920s resulted in their closure.^[8] Exploratory drilling efforts for natural gas near Pakowki that began in 1922 ended in 1926, after very little was found.^[4] Pakowki's post office closed in December 1929, owing to the settlement's population decline.^[8][10] Its train tracks were removed by the 1970s.^[11] Nothing remains of the original Pakowki settlement, and as of 2025, the site remains uninhabited.^[6][9][11]