The west had just been opened up to waves of European settlers seeking prosperity, and at first, the future appeared promising for Senate and several others along Highway 13.

During Senate's best years, the community had two elevators, a five-room hotel and restaurant, blacksmith shop, lumberyard and Kalmring's general store and gas station.

In 1994, with the railway and elevators also gone, rural municipality officials brought in the bulldozers and levelled Senate's remaining dilapidated buildings and dumped part of the debris into a nearby landfill.

In the 1940s, Senate was one of only a handful of communities in Canada that has not only land, but a similar size village, in this case Port-aux-Français on the Kerguelen Islands, within 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of its antipode.

Prior to January 1, 1994, Senate was incorporated as a village, and was dissolved into an unincorporated community under the jurisdiction of the Rural municipality of Reno on that date.