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The 600-kilometre drive across southern Saskatchewan on the
Trans-Canada Highway is crushingly boring,
and apart from
Regina the only town worth a
stopover is
Moose jaw
, once a
Prohibition hangout of American gangsters,
including Al Capone. Otherwise the rest of
southern Saskatchewan is mostly undulating
farmland, broken up by a handful of
lakes and rivers, stretches of arid semi-desert
and the odd range of wooded hills.
In the southeast corner of the province, the
lakes, hillocks and aspen, birch and poplar
forests of Moose Mountain Provincial Park
come complete with campsites, nature trails and
a resort village. Further west, just south
of Regina and near the US border, it's possible
to drive across the Big Muddy Badlands ,
but these weathered buttes and conical hills
are best explored on the tours that leave the
tiny town of Coronach throughout the
summer. Directly west of here, the
Grasslands National Park is still being
developed and extended, two separate slices of prairie punctuated by coulees and buttes that add a rare touch of drama
to the landscape. Some 200km further,
straddling the Saskatchewan border,
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
is also well worth a visit, its heavily forested
hills and ridges harbouring a
restored Mountie outpost, Fort Walsh .
Further west, the area to the
northwest of the small city of
Swift Current
is home to the Great Sand
Hills , a starkly
beautiful desert
landscape.
Directly south of that is Maple Creek , a quintessentially
cowboy town with Hutterite colonies
nearby.
Apart from the daily bus
services along
the Trans-Canada, the region's public transport system is abysmal -
to see the parks,
you'll need a car.
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Saskatchewan is the middle province of
Canada's three prairie provinces. It has an area
of 651,900 km² (251,700 mi²) and a population of
978,934 (Saskatchewanians) (January 1, 2005).
Most of its population lives in the southern
part of the province. The largest city is
Saskatoon with a metropolitan population of
225,927 (January 1, 2005), followed by the
province's capital, Regina (metro population:
192,800, January 1, 2005). Other major cities
(in order of size) include Prince Albert, Moose
Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, and North
Battleford. See also List of communities in
Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan is (approximately) a quadrilateral
bounded on the west by Alberta, on the north by
the Northwest Territories, on the east by
Manitoba, and on the south by the American
states of Montana and North Dakota.
The province's name, pronounced "sus-KATCH-uh-wun"
(IPA: [səsˈkætʃəwən]) by its inhabitants, comes
from the Saskatchewan River, whose name comes
from its Cree designation: kisiskāciwani-sīpiy
meaning "swift flowing river".
History
Prior to European settlement, Saskatchewan was
settled by Athabaskan, Algonquian, and Sioux
tribes. The first European to enter Saskatchewan
was Henry Kelsey in 1690, who travelled up the
Saskatchewan River in hopes of trading fur with
the province's indigenous peoples. The first
permanent European settlement was a Hudson's Bay
Company post at Cumberland House founded by
Samuel Hearne in 1774.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, scientific
expeditions led by John Palliser and Henry Youle
Hind explored the prairie region of the
province.
In the 1870s, the Government of Canada formed
the Northwest Territories to administer the vast
territory between British Columbia and Manitoba.
The Government also entered into a series of
numbered Treaties with the indigenous peoples of
the area, which serve as the basis of the
relationship between "First Nations", as they
are called today, and the Crown. Soon after, the
First Nations were forced onto reserves.
Settlement of the province started to take off
as the Canadian Pacific Railway was built in the
early 1880s, and the Canadian government divided
up the land by the Dominion Land Survey and gave
free land to any willing settlers. The North
West Mounted Police set up several posts and
forts across Saskatchewan including Fort Walsh
in the Cypress Hills, and Wood Mountain Post in
south central Saskatchewan near the American
border.
Many Métis people, who had not taken Treaty, had
moved to the Saskatchewan Rivers district north
of present-day Saskatoon following the Red River
Rebellion in Manitoba in 1870. In the early
1880s, the Canadian Government refused to hear
the Metis' grievances, which stemmed from
land-use issues. Finally, in 1885, the Metis,
led by Louis Riel, staged the North-West
Rebellion and declared a provisional government.
They were defeated by a Canadian militia brought
to the prairies by the new Canadian Pacific
Railway. Riel surrendered and was convicted of
treason in a packed Regina courtroom. He was
hanged on November 16, 1885.
As more settlers came to the prairies on the
railway, the population grew and Saskatchewan
officially became a province on September 1,
1905 and inauguration day was held September 4.
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Background:
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A
land of vast distances and rich natural resources,
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867
while retaining ties to the British crown.
Economically and technologically the nation has
developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to
the south across an unfortified border. Its
paramount political problem continues to be the
relationship of the province of Quebec, with its
French-speaking residents and unique culture, to the
remainder of the country. |
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Population:
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32,507,874 (July 2004 est.) |
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Languages:
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English 59.3% (official), French 23.2% (official),
other 17.5% |
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Currency:
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Canadian dollar (CAD)
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Currency code:
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CAD
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Exchange rates:
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Canadian dollars per US dollar - 1.4 (2003), 1.57
(2002), 1.55 (2001), 1.49 (2000), 1.49 (1999) |
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