Cumberland Island, also known as Pine Island, is a small island in the

Saskatchewan River Delta The Saskatchewan River Delta (SRD) is a large alluvial delta that straddles the border of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in south-central Canada. Currently terminating at Cedar Lake, Manitoba, the delta is composed mainly of various t ...

in the east-central region of the Canadian province of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

. The Saskatchewan River Delta is one of the largest active inland

deltas A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarel ...

in North America. Cumberland Island is situated between

Cumberland Lake Cumberland Lake is a glacial lake of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located in the Cumberland Delta in east-central Saskatchewan about from the Manitoba border. Cumberland House and Cumberland House Provincial Historic Park are located on the ...

to the north and the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

to the south. The Tearing River runs along the eastern edge of the island and Bigstone River along the western edge. The Bigstone River separates Cumberland Island from Spruce Island to the west. The island is in the Mid- Boreal Lowland region, which consists of mixed coniferous and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

forests of

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

and black spruce,

jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana'') is an eastern North American pine. Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and the north-central and ...

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

, trembling aspen,

balsam poplar ''Populus balsamifera'', commonly called balsam poplar, bam, bamtree, eastern balsam-poplar, hackmatack, tacamahac poplar, tacamahaca, is a tree species in the balsam poplar species group in the poplar genus, ''Populus.'' The genus name ''Populu ...

, and

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

. Cumberland Island's location was important to the fur trade as it sat on the canoe route that brought furs from the west to the Hudson Bay. In 1774, the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

had set up its first inland

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

on the island.

Communities

Cumberland Island is in the

Northern Saskatchewan Administration District The Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (NSAD) is the unincorporated area, unorganized area of the Canadian, Canada province of Saskatchewan. Overwhelmingly larger than the province's other communities, it encompasses approximately half ...

and is home to the villages of

Cumberland House Cumberland House was a mansion on the south side of Pall Mall in London, England. It was built in the 1760s by Matthew Brettingham for Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany and was originally called York House. The Duke of York died in 1767 ...

(Saskatchewan's oldest continuously inhabited

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

) and Pemmican Portage. Adjacent to the communities are Cumberland House Provincial Park, which is the site of the former Hudson's Bay Company fort, and

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." In ...

. Métis and

Swampy Cree The Swampy Cree people, also known by their autonyms ''Néhinaw'', ''Maskiki Wi Iniwak'', ''Mushkekowuk,'' ''Maškékowak'' or ''Maskekon'' (and therefore also ''Muskegon'' and ''Muskegoes'') or by exonyms including ''West Main Cree,'' ''Lowlan ...

make up most of the 1,500 residents on the island. Access to the island is from Highway 123 and the Cumberland House Airport. The airport is located west of Cumberland House and Highway 123 accesses the island from the south side across the Cumberland House Bridge, which was built in 1995.

Bigstone Cutoff Recreation Site

Bigstone Cutoff Recreation Site () is a provincial recreation site located at the westernmost point of Cumberland Island, at the confluence of Bigstone River and the Bigstone Cutoff arm of the Saskatchewan River. The park has a small, free campground and access to the river for boating and fishing.

References

{{Authority control River islands of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan River Division No. 18, Saskatchewan

Communities

Bigstone Cutoff Recreation Site

See also

References