Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan
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Fort Qu'Appelle is a town located in the Qu'Appelle Valley in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, originally established as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in 1852.
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[edit] History
[edit] Profile
The town of Fort Qu'Appelle (not to be confused with the nearby town of Qu'Appelle) is approximately 65 kilometres north-east of Regina, the provincial capital, between Echo and Mission Lakes, the second and third of the four Fishing Lakes. It is immediately adjacent to the site of the original Fort Qu'Appelle Hudson's Bay Company trading post, whose "factory" is maintained as a historical site and museum. (The 1897 Hudson's Bay stone department store building remains standing on Main Street, though long disused by the Bay.) The surrounding area is home to grain and cattle farms, small rural communities and sixteen Indian reserves. Fort Qu'Appelle has the largest detachment of RCMP per capita in the country.
According to the Canada 2001 Census the town's population statistics (which do not include the substantial population living along the lakeshores of the Fishing Lakes) were as follows:
- Population in 2001 — 1,940
- Population in 1996 — 1,987A
- 1996 to 2001 population change (%) — -2.4
- Total private dwellings — 892
- Population density per square kilometre — 347.8
- Land area (square km) — 5.58
[edit] Origins
The current site is the third Fort Qu'Appelle. The first was Northwest Company trading post (1801-05), also in the valley but near what is now the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. The Hudson's Bay Company itself (after the unification of the HBC and the Northwest Company) first used the name for a post north of present-day Whitewood (some 100 miles east of Regina on Number 1 Highway) from 1813 to 1819. The current site was a Hudson's Bay Company post from 1852 to 1854 and again from 1864 to 1911.
The town's substantial growth apart from its status as a Hudson's Bay Company "factory" first occurred in the 1880s and 1890s when European settlement began in the region as the Canadian Pacific Railway moved westwards. This coincided with the first development of British India after the seizing of control of India from the East India Company by the Crown after the 1857 Indian Mutiny, and the town of Fort Qu'Appelle's striking similarity to the Indian hill stations of the early Raj has been widely commented upon by anyone who has seen both. Older residences and commercial premises together with the town's Anglican and United (formerly Presbyterian) churches are quintessentially of the 19th century hinterland British Empire, a matter which local civic boosters appear not yet to have capitalised upon.
[edit] Development
Despite the accelerating decline of rural Saskatchewan in the post-World War II years, the town grew through most of the 1950's and 1960's as a cottage community serving the Qu'Appelle Lakes summer-cottage country in the valley up- and down-river from the town. Cottagers from Regina and other southern Saskatchewan communities used Fort Qu'Appelle as a base from which to explore the scenic and historic river valley, purchase hardware and groceries and contract services; the town also benefited urban drift as farms and other towns steadily depopulated. This process was precipitately accelerated in 1964 when the rural school districts were abolished and farm primary and high school children were thereafter bused to town schools. Rural churches having largely closed in the 1950s, the collapse of rural farming communities was now assured, to the benefit of minor metropoles such as Fort Qu'Appelle though arguably to the impoverishment of the community as a whole.
A tuberculosis sanatorium was operated by the provincial department of public health at nearby Fort San; when tuberculosis ceased to be a public health problem the facility was turned into a fine arts complex where a substantial summer program was operated until the early 1990s when the provincial government terminated its funding.
The former Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital was replaced in 2004 by the All Nations Healing Hospital. The hospital is one of the first health care facilities in Canada owned and operated by First Nation governments: sixteen in total, five from Touchwood Agency Tribal Council and eleven from File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council).
[edit] Tourism
Fort Qu'Appelle is a notable tourist destination both in summer and winter. The lakes afford swimming, boating and other water related activities in summer and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing in winter.
The most notable tourist event is Treaty 4 Gathering, is a week long event celebrating the signing of Treaty #4. The event is held in September, during the week of the 15th. Pow-Wows are held daily during the week.
The Mission Ridge Ski Hill, located just south of the town near the Treaty 4 Grounds, is open during the winter and is patronised by ski-enthusiasts from the valley and environs and from Regina and elsewhere in the region.
[edit] Education
The town has one high school, Bert Fox Community High School, and one elementary school, Fort Qu'Appelle Elementary Community School. Parklands College is located at the Treaty 4 Governance Centre.
[edit] Notable People from Fort Qu'Appelle
- Hockey star Eddie Shore was born in Fort Qu'Appelle.
- 1960s folksinger and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie (who wrote the protest song "Universal Soldier," has been a regular performer on the U.S. version of "Sesame Street" and is an Officer of the Order of Canada) was born on the Piapot Cree reserve in the Qu'Appelle Valley.
- Noted Canadian jurist and singer Graeme Mitchell grew up at Fort San and received his high school education in Fort Qu'Appelle.
- NHLers Scott Niedermayer and his brother Rob Niedermayer have grandparents who live in Fort Qu'Appelle. Visits are usually private with little to no media attention.
[edit] Media
- The town's community newspaper the Fort Qu'Appelle Times is released every Tuesday.
- The community radio station, "Voice of the Valley," operates at 88.3 FM.
[edit] Fort Qu'Appelle as a television and film location
- The movie Skipped Parts had scenes filmed in Fort Qu'Appelle and in nearby towns as well as the city of Regina
- The CBC movie "Betrayed" was filmed primarily in Fort Qu'Appelle, with notable sites including the old hospital (both in and out).
[edit] External links
- Community website - History of Fort Qu'Appelle
- University of Saskatchewan Library: postcard views of the Qu'Appelle Valley at the turn of the 20th century
- Hospital Website - Official site of the All Nation's Healing Hospital
