William Richard Motherwell was the fourth son of a Lanark County farmer in Ontario. Like many young men, he was lured west by the prospect of free land. He was a graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College, and a hard worker. He staked his claim in the Pheasant Hills district north of Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, in 1882 and changed the practice of farming, forever. Motherwell was an agricultural visionary. He developed systems of crop rotation, letting land lie fallow for seasons to recapture moisture, and he broke the railway grain monopoly, paving the way for the farmers' co-operatives in the Prairie Provinces. His homestead is preserved in the period of its peak, pre-WWI, giving us insight into the man and his life's work. Motherwell and his second wife Catherine, whose work with the native community and women's groups is still deeply respected, became community leaders and province builders.