Although early Canadian explorer Henry Kelsey is known to have passed through the area as early as 1690 during his exploration of the Carrot River, it would be just over two centuries before the real settlement of Tisdale officially began in 1904 coinciding with the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway, later known as the Canadian National Railway. The Community was originally known as "Doghide" after the Doghide River which flows nearby, when the Canadian National Railway came through the town the community was renamed Tisdale in honour of F.W. Tisdale an employee of CN Railway.
