Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan
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| Town of Qu'Appelle | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  Saskatchewan |
| Region | Saskatchewan |
| Census division | 6 |
| Rural Municipality | South Qu'Appelle |
| Post office Founded | 1882 |
| Incorporated (Village) | N/A |
| Incorporated (Town) | N/A |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Allan Arthur |
| - Town Manager | Carol Wickenheiser |
| - Governing body | Qu'Appelle Town Council |
| Area | |
| - Total | 4.22 km² (1.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2001) | |
| - Total | 648 |
| - Density | 153.4/km² (397.3/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC) |
| Postal code | S0G 4A0 |
| Area code(s) | 306 |
| Highways | Highway 1 |
| Waterways | |
| Website: Town of Qu'Appelle | |
Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, is a small village with considerable historic significance located on Trans-Canada Highway 1 and the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline, some thirty miles east of Regina, Saskatchewan. With
- its for a time seemingly long-term terminus status for the Canadian Pacific Railway;
- its lush rolling parkland setting, intermittent "coulees" (gentle valleys with steady-flowing creeks) and "bluffs" (the local term for aspen groves) and generally picturesque locale both in summer and winter and
- its ready access to ample water
Qu'Appelle had at one stage been credibly anticipated to be a major metropole by both
- the federal government of Canada — it was under serious consideration by the federal government for district headquarters of the District of Assiniboia and territorial headquarters of the North-West Territories — and
- the Church of England (now the Anglican Church of Canada), which for a time designated Qu'Appelle the cathedral city for the Diocese of Qu'Appelle, geographically corresponding precisely to the District of Assiniboia in the North-West Territories.
Political events, however, passed Qu'Appelle entirely by and when Lieutenant-Governor Edgar Dewdney elected the locale of his own landholdings some 30 miles to the west of Qu'Appelle as his Territorial capital, Qu'Appelle's significance other than in historical terms largely lapsed.
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[edit] History
Like many small Canadian prairie towns, Qu'Appelle has enjoyed a considerably more lively past than present; Qu'Appelle, however, has in particular been a near-miss throughout its unfortunate history.
It was — as demonstrated by its now entirely historical commemoration as the historical see city of the Anglican Diocese of Qu'Appelle — at one point the obvious choice as the capital of the North-West [sic] Territories. Its bypassing is a matter of considerable irony, both in terms of latter day ideas of probity in public life and the practicalities of arranging for the later ongoing administration of Regina, a city of considerable importance, some 30 miles to the west of Qu'Appelle, where none of Qu'Appelle's felicitous amenities pertain.
[edit] Founding and naming
Founded as Troy in 1882, for a time Qu'Appelle appeared likely to be the administrative headquarters for the District of Assiniboia, corresponding to the southern portion of the later province of Saskatchewan. Indeed, the considerable beauty of the topography of the region — it is in an amply watered rolling parkland with lush aspen groves ("poplar bluffs" in local terminology) and densely treed coulees leading into the Qu'Appelle Valley — makes it especially unfortunate that this turned out not to be so, given the relative lack of natural amenity of Regina, the site actually chosen, where there is no locally available water other than from the small spring runoff Wascana Creek, the local topography is devoid of features and the local plain is entirely devoid of trees that have not been planted by civic authorities and settlers.
When the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1884 the new town was renamed Qu'Appelle Station from its initial name of Troy.[2] and in 1902 the name was changed to South Qu'Appelle. There was longstanding confusion as to the name "Qu'Appelle," which also referred to the former Hudson's Bay Company fort town in the Qu'Appelle Valley, to the northeast of Qu'Appelle; in 1911 the two communities agreed to rationalise the confusion in their names by deeming the then-Canadian Pacific Railway station site as Qu'Appelle and the town in the valley as Fort Qu'Appelle.[3]
[edit] The North-West Rebellion
Qu'Appelle attained national prominence in 1885 during the North-West Rebellion. Until the construction of the Qu’Appelle, Long Lake, and Saskatchewan Railway in 1890 linked Regina with Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Qu'Appelle was the major debarkation and distribution centre and General Middleton, who billeted in the Queen's Hotel (built in 1884 and surviving until its destruction by fire in 2003[4]), made it the marshalling point to the northwest for troops arriving from eastern Canada by train.[5] Many Qu'Appelle children of the late 19th and early 20th centuries recount frightening encounters with angry Cree and "half breeds" who not unreasonably bore a considerable grudge against white settlers in the Qu'Appelle region.
[edit] Early town life
Early residents of Qu'Appelle included numerous English remittance men whose cultured backgrounds contributed significantly to the life of the town in the early days: amateur theatricals and musical evenings were a regular feature of winter social life.
As in Fort Qu'Appelle, town life in many ways resembled that of an Indian hill station during the British Raj. Perhaps improbably in so small a community but indicative of the not always tolerant and inclusive social mores of early settlement in the Canadian west, discrete neighbourhoods of Qu'Appelle were generally called "Germantown" and "Breedville," the latter in racist early reference to the prairie Anglo-Métis, whom white settlers at the time called "half-breeds," a term now considered disparaging, and generally avoided.
The fine yellow brick town hall and "opera house" remains in use; its companion building, Qu'Appelle High School, built in similar style in identical yellow brick, closed in the 1960s and was demolished. At one point the town contained a train station, some half-dozen grain elevators, a bank, post office, butcher, two general stores, a hardware store, pharmacy, hotel (and "beverage room," in the terminology of the early 20th century Canadian West), barber shop, firehall, numerous service stations, several cafés and a covered rink.[6] In the 1890s there was also "a flour mill, a creamery, a felt and boot factory."[7]
The Qu'Appelle Anglican Diocese maintained the St John's College Farm immediately to the west of town.[8] By 1910 the town's population had risen to nearly 1,000.[9] but the farming hinterland was also far more densely populated than today and with travel to Regina usually a matter of a train journey and domestic transport mostly by horsedrawn conveyances Qu'Appelle was an important local business, shopping and distribution centre which, indeed, staged an annual summer fair.[10]
To a great extent these amenities have lapsed. The rationalisation by the grain companies of their depots for buying grain from farmers and the resulting disappearance of Qu'Appelle's grain elevators have hastened the process of decline as even the regular visits by farmers to town to deliver grain have ceased.
[edit] The "Progress"
The Qu'Appelle Progress, the town newspaper, began production at the very outset of Qu'Appelle's establishment and maintained publication till the mid-60s, originally providing substantive news as to national and international events when access to wider news organs was not locally available. Latterly it devolved to a local community paper, largely subsisting on reports from farm wives as to the waning hinterland rural communities as substantive civic events in Qu'Appelle became less newsworthy, with community reporters phoning in accounts of events in such now entirely historic rural communities as Inglewood and Springbrook. Increasingly, however,
- family farms were consolidated;
- the rural population which Qu'Appelle had served declined;
- rural churches and schools closed — churches disappeared in the 1950s; all rural schools were closed in June, 1963 and farm children thereafter bused to town school; little trace of either now remains — and
- rural community life lapsed.
By the time such rural communities had passed into their brief history, Heber Ellis, the editor and publisher of The Progress had also reached the end of his life and The Progress died with him.
[edit] Churches and community events
In Qu'Appelle's early days, churches constituted a major focus of community social as well as religious life through the year. Social events involving the whole community occurred when the town organised
- May Day celebrations on May 1,
- Victoria Day fireworks on May 24 and
- a parade for Dominion Day on July 1,
- a summer agricultural fair in July,[11]
- school plays and concerts at Christmas and in the spring,[12] and
- amateur community concerts and theatricals in the "opera house" in the Town Hall.
But the town's churches — Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyerian, Methodist (later United Church, comprising all the Methodists and the majority of the Presbyterians) and, after the 1925 church union, the continuing Presbyterian congregation — mounted parish, congregational, Sunday School and other events through the year which were a focus of social activity for members of the four religious denominations of the town: Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist (until 1925 when the United Church of Canada emerged) and Roman Catholic.
- The Church of England
In anticipation of its presumed eventual urban importance the Anglican ecclesiastical province of Ruperts Land designated the village of Qu'Appelle as the cathedral city of the new diocese of Qu'Appelle (which retains that name, though the historic association with the town of Qu'Appelle other than as a subsidiary congregation of the parish of Indian Head is long past); St Peter's, the pro-cathedral, was built in 1885; its fine stone rectory next door is now in private hands, the church having long since withdrawn any full-time residential clergy from the town. The diocese operated a training facility for Anglican clergy in the town and a model farm immediately to the west of town; the parish church of St Peter's was the pro-cathedral for southern Saskatchewan.[13]
The original Bishop's Court, the official residence of the diocesan bishop, was also in Qu'Appelle though moved by John Burn, the second bishop of Qu'Appelle, to Indian Head, some 8 miles to the east of Qu'Appelle, in 1896 when he also closed the college because of diocesan debt[14]; but early on the bishop's residence was further relocated to the diocesan property in Regina which has itself now been sold and is being redeveloped for commercial and residential use as the declining Anglican Church has been forced to rationalise its resources.
Ultimately, pro-cathedral status was removed from St Peter's, Qu'Appelle and conferred on St Paul's, Regina in 1944. (However, even Regina's continuing status as an episcopal see and that of St Paul's, Regina as a cathedral may now be in doubt as the further declining Anglican Church rationalises its increasingly top-heavy episcopal structure.[15])
- The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Methodist Church of Canada; The United Church of Canada
Qu'Appelle Methodist Church opened in 1883 as part of a circuit that included Edgeley Methodist Church;[16] Knox Presbyterian Church was built in 1884.[17]The Presbyterian and Methodist congregations merged in 1925 to become a congregation of the United Church of Canada, maintaining the Presbyterian church building as its facility and with the minister of Qu'Appelle Methodist Church continuing at the now-Knox United.[18]
The Presbyterians of Qu'Appelle were so substantial a body that when a non-concurring minority of the Presbyterian congregation seceded and re-constituted themselves a separate continuing Presbyterian congregation, building a separate meeting house on Main Street for their re-named St Andrew's Presbyterian Church,[19] those who went into the union still constituted a majority of the United Church congregation and both were able to maintain a vital presence in the town for many years.
For a generation the church union issue raised hackles in Qu'Appelle among uniting and non-concurring Presbyterians and many firm friendships were sundered; nowadays as elsewhere in Canada, as the matter has passed into history and matters of denominational affiliation have largely become moot in Canada's increasingly secular society, the issue is largely forgotten.
- The Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception
The Roman Catholics, many of them of French Canadian and German antecedents, built the fine Immaculate Conception Church on Main Street in 1906 (consecrated in 1907) in the same yellow brick as the town hall and school, the pro-cathedral and numerous houses and Main Street businesses, which once characterised the town's not-unimpressive yellow brick style. Immaculate Conception parish began in 1886; its original church building survives as a private residential dwelling. Whereas Presbyterian and Methodist, and later United, Churches maintained rural congregations in which farm families locally worshipped, Roman Catholics came to town for Sunday Mass and liturgical festivals and from the outset the Catholic church in Qu'Appelle had a substantial constituency. Now by far the largest church building in the town of Qu'Appelle, it seats up to 225.[20]
[edit] Qu'Appelle today
![Model of the old Qu'Appelle High School on the grounds of the contemporary James Hamblin [primary] School](../../../../images/shared/thumb/6/65/QuAppelleSD2.jpg/180px-QuAppelleSD2.jpg)
For a time Qu'Appelle commerce was saved from moribundity by Regina cottagers passing through en route to the Qu'Appelle Valley: until 1968 when Highway No. 10 cut across directly from Balgonie to the Valley the route from Regina to the Valley was by Highway No. 1 to Qu'Appelle and then north on Highway 35.[21] In recent years Qu'Appelle has enjoyed a mild resurgence as a result of commuters from Regina discovering it as a bedroom community — according to the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan "about 80% to 90% of the town’s workforce drive to and from the city each day"[22] — however, the once solidly built up main street is now almost entirely lined with vacant lots.
As late as the 1960s there were still a hospital, post office, butcher, Red & White grocery store, general store, barbershop and several garages, including Royalite and BA stations on the trans-Canada highway. The Queen's Hotel, built in 1884 and perhaps the last of the major commercial structures of Main Street, burned to the ground in 2003.[23]
James Hamblin School, the town primary school built in the 1960s and named for the proprietor of the long-operating (but now long-defunct) Main Street general store, remains in operation with nine staff and an enrollment of 156 in 2007.[24]
At present there remains a small business core including a print shop, tattoo parlour (!) and analytical laboratory.[25] The Odd Fellows, long a local service club, is long gone, but there still is a Masons lodge, a Lions Club, the Community Players and a Historical Society.[26]
According to the Canada 2001 Census the community profile was as follows:
- Population in 2001 — 648
- Population in 1996 — 632
- 1996 to 2001 population change (%) — 2.5
- Total private dwellings — 290
- Population density per square kilometre — 153.4
- Land area (square km) — 4.22
[edit] Notable people from Qu'Appelle
- Neil Schell, actor[citation needed]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Note: (a) the extraordinarily wide main street, in contemplation of the town's anticipated metropolitan importance; (b) the grain elevator (one of several) adjacent to the CPR tracks at the south end of Main Street; (c) the substantially brick rather than timber buildings, anticipating permanent importance for the town; (d) the signs and canvass awnings of the commercial establishments, indicating the considerable vitality of trade and commerce in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Qu'Appelle; (d) the fully occupied commercial lots along the street, since the 1950s incrementally vacated; (e) the horse-drawn vehicles drawn up along the street at the time of an obviously early-morning photo-shoot.
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ MacLennon.
- ^ McLennon
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Note photo of covered rink and equipment at Saskatchewan Settlement Experience: Life on the Prairies - Hockey
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Photo at Saskatchewan Settlement Experience: "This group of people gathered for a picnic at St. John's College Farm in Qu'Appelle." Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ McLennon
- ^ Saskatchewan Settlement Experience: Photograph of Qu'Appelle Fair, 1898. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
- ^ Note photo of display of cattle at the Qu'Appelle Fair, 1898 at [1].
- ^ Note photo of school concert in the "opera house" (in the Town Hall), 1920 at [2]
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ [3] Anglican bishops of Canada: Qu'Appelle. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
- ^ "Church Maps Could Be Re-Drawn," Anglican Journal, 1 April 2007 Retrieved 28 April 2007.
- ^ Meredith Banting Best, Our roots: Early history of Saskatchewan churches, Book I (Regina: self-published, 1975), p.143. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Best, p.146.
- ^ "St Andrew's Presbyterian Church," Town of Qu'Appelle website. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
- ^ Town of Qu'Appelle website.
- ^ McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ David McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ David McLennon, "Qu'Appelle, The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Qu'Appelle Valley School District website. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
- ^ McLennon.
- ^ Town of Qu'Appelle website. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
[edit] External links
- Postcard views of Qu'Appelle at the turn of the 20th century
- Saskatchewan Settlement Experience. Photos of early settlement, including in Qu'Appelle
- Town of Qu'Appelle website
[edit] See also
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