Saskatchewan! Trivia Quiz

Answer: yes

Regina was established as the capital of the North-West Territories in 1882, through a process that could be described as somewhat dodgy. There were already developed towns in perhaps better locations, but the lieutenant-governor of the time had financial interests in putting the new capital at what became Regina. Wascana Creek was dammed to make Wascana Lake, and a really very pleasant city grew up around it.

When Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed in 1905 from part of the North-West Territories, Regina became the capital of the new province of Saskatchewan.

Answer: Saskatoon

Saskatoon and Regina together make up roughly 3/4 of the urban population of the province, the rest being made up by smaller centres like Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, and others.

Saskatoon is another pleasant little city, on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River. I had always thought that our most well known (and best!) wild prairie berry, the saskatoon, was named for the city, but it seems that it's the other way around - Saskatoon was apparently a good place to pick saskatoon berries, and that's where the name came from. It's originally a Cree word.

Answer: Lloydminster

Saskatchewan has two border cities - Flin Flon is on the border with Manitoba.

Lloydminster started as the Barr Colony, an imperial (and maybe just a wee bit racist) expedition to secure western Canadian settlement for the British. It was badly mismanaged, and Isaac Barr soon lost leadership to George Lloyd, for whom the city of Lloydminster ended up being named. Eventually the homesteaders prospered, and the colony was instrumental in opening up settlement in that part of the province.

Answer: Lake Athabasca and Reindeer Lake

Lake Athabasca is shared with Alberta, high in the northwest corner of the province. About 3/4 of the 7,850 km2 lake is in Saskatchewan. It drains into the Arctic Ocean via the Slave and Mackenzie Rivers.

Reindeer Lake is in the northeast corner of Saskatchewan, and is shared with Manitoba. The vast majority of the 6,650 km2 lake is in Saskatchewan, with only 8% in Manitoba. It drains to Hudson Bay by way of the Reindeer and Churchill Rivers.

Answer: Cypress Hills

The Cypress Hills are a rarity - a portion of Canada east of the Rockies that was not covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Pleistocene (ice age) epoch. As such, the geology and ecology are quite different from the surrounding prairies.

The Cypress Hills were also the location of an important incident in western Canadian history, the Cypress Hills Massacre. An altercation between mostly American wolf hunters and whisky traders, and the local people, led to the deaths of about fifteen people, primarily members of Chief Little Soldier's Assiniboine band. This was one of the factors that led to the creation of the North-West Mounted Police (later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

Answer: A medicine wheel

Medicine wheels are stone circles with a central cairn and stone spokes radiating out from this central point. These sacred circles are extremely important to traditional Indigenous spirituality and have been in use in the Central Plains for several thousand years.

First Nations people have been coming to the opimihâw Creek valley for about six thousand years, as part of their nomadic way of life. There are more than a dozen Pre-Contact archaeological dig sites in the area. There is a wonderful interpretive centre, and a trail system through the site allows visitors to visit the medicine wheel.

Answer: Historic brick factory

Anyone driving through the small towns of southern Saskatchewan will notice the large number of public buildings and older homes built of or faced with brick. Brickmaking was a large part of early European settlement in the province; during the early 20th century there were more than sixty brick plants. (The quiz author has a family connection to the small town of Wolseley, and many buildings there are built from the lovely mellow brownish brick from the one-time local brick factory.)

Although the clay deposits at Claybank have probably been used for pottery since prehistoric times, the first modern use started in 1886. Once the railway came through the area in 1910, and made large scale commercial brick production economically feasible, a factory was soon built. Much of the original factory, which closed in 1989, still remains, and can be toured at the historic site.

Answer: The Columbia and the Wapta

The North Saskatchewan forms from the Saskatchewan Glacier in the Columbia Icefield in Banff National Park. It flows through central Alberta and heads in a southerly direction into Saskatchewan before making a fairly sharp turn northwards.

The South Saskatchewan (as the Bow River) forms from the Bow Glacier on the Wapta Icefield, also in Banff. As the Bow it flows through Calgary and becomes the South Saskatchewan when it joins with the Oldman River about midway between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in Alberta. It then heads roughly in a northeasterly direction, through Saskatoon, and up to the meeting with the North Saskatchewan not far from Prince Albert.

Answer: Battles during the North-West Resistance

The North-West Resistance (also known as the North-West Rebellion and the Second Riel Rebellion) is too big a subject to cover here.

Briefly, though, the Indigenous peoples and the Métis both had (mostly quite legitimate) grievances against the Canadian government and white settlers, while the settlers were also unhappy with the government and with their First Nations neighbours. In 1884/85 this all led to armed conflict, with the Cree in the western part of what would become Saskatchewan, and the Métis further east at Batoche. It didn't end well for anyone, though the white settlers lost the least.

Answer: 49th parallel and 60th parallel

The US/Canada border for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and part of BC runs along the 49th parallel (roughly - survey techniques at the time of the 1818 treaty that established the border were not perfect). The border between the four western provinces and the northern territories lies on the 60th parallel.

Saskatchewan's eastern and western borders are on, roughly (errors in surveying, again) the 102W and 104W meridians of longitude.