Abel Lake is named in memory of Private John James Abel. The lake was dedicated on September 5, 1957 by the Government of Saskatchewan.
John Abel was born in January 1916 on the family farm near Peppel, east of Biggar, Saskatchewan. His family had moved from Fergus, Ontario, to homestead north of Keppel in 1912. John worked on the farm and in the bush in northern Saskatchewan before enlisting at North Battleford in 1940. As a member of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, John Abel was killed on July 21, 1944, in the Battle of Verrières Ridge, an important belt of high ground which dominates the route from Caen to Falaise. He is buried at Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, Calvados, France.
