Estevan is the eighth-largest city in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, 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 t ...

, Canada. It is approximately north of the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

. The

Souris River The Souris River (; french: rivière Souris) or Mouse River (as it is alternatively known in the U.S., a calque of its French name) is a river in central North America. It is about in length and drains about . It rises in the Yellow Grass Mars ...

runs by the city. This city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Estevan No. 5.

History

The first

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

s in what was to become Estevan arrived in 1892, along with the expansion of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

. It was incorporated as a village in 1899, and later became a town in 1906. On March 1, 1957, Estevan acquired the status of a city, which, in Saskatchewan terms, is any community of 5,000 or more. The name origin is attributed to George Stephen's registered

telegraphic address A telegraphic address or cable address was a unique identifier code for a recipient of telegraph messages. Operators of telegraph services regulated the use of telegraphic addresses to prevent duplication. Rather like a uniform resource locator ( ...

, ''Estevan''. George Stephen was the first President of the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1881 to 1888.

World War I military unit

On December 22, 1915, the 152nd (Weyburn-Estevan) Battalion, CEF was authorised and recruited men from the area before departing to Great Britain on October 3, 1916.

1931 riot

Estevan was the site of the notorious

Estevan riot The Estevan riot, also known as the Black Tuesday Riot, was a confrontation between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and striking coal miners from nearby Bienfait, Saskatchewan which took place in Estevan, Saskatchewan on September 29, 1931. ...

in 1931. Although most of the strikers were from nearby

Bienfait Bienfait is a town in Saskatchewan on Highway 18 that is 14 km (9 miles) east of Estevan. It is 30 km northwest of the town of North Portal, which is next to the Canadian-American border and is also 10 km south of Estevan. I ...

, the strike is associated with Estevan because it was in this city the demonstrators were met by members of the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

. After the subsequent riot, which lasted 45 minutes, three strikers lay dead. It was later proven the three miners had been killed by the RCMP. The miners had been organised by the

Workers' Unity League The Workers' Unity League (WUL) was established in January 1930 as a militant industrial union labour central closely related to the Communist Party of Canada on the instructions of the Communist International. This was reflective of the shift in ...

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Estevan had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Economy

The major industries in Estevan are

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

, power generation at nearby

Boundary Dam Power Station Boundary Dam Power Station is the largest coal fired station owned by SaskPower, located near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. Description The Boundary Dam Power Station consists of two 62 net MW units (commissioned in 1959, shut down and decommis ...

and

Shand Power Station Shand Power Station is a coal fired station owned by SaskPower in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, near the city of Estevan. Description The Shand Power Station consists of: *one 279 net MW unit (commissioned in 1992) *advanced env ...

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and combustion, burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, petroleum, oil, and natura ...

, and agriculture.

Arts and culture

Museums and galleries

The city of Estevan has two museums, one of which is primarily a gallery. The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, formerly the Estevan National Exhibition Centre, was founded in 1978. The Estevan Art Gallery is a free public gallery that showcases contemporary art. The Gallery's permanent collection includes woodblock-print works by Andrew King. The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, EAGM, also features the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...

Wood End Post Historical Site, NWMP Museum. This museum is in a house which is the oldest-known North-West Mounted Police Detachment Post in Saskatchewan and holds a collection related to the North-West Mounted Police and the 1874

March West The March West was the initial journey of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) to the Canadian Prairies, Canadian prairies, made between July 8 and October 9, 1874. It was the result of the force being deployed to what is now southern Alberta in ...

from

Roche Percée Roche Percée ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Coalfields No. 4 and Census Division No. 1. The village is situated near the Canada–United States border just off of ...

to Estevan. The Souris Valley Museum, SVM, is a local and regional history museum focused on human development and daily life within south-east Saskatchewan. It was founded in 2001, primarily from the collection of Stan Durr. The museum provides an engaging depiction of the social and cultural influences and economic development of south-east Saskatchewan. The collection includes the Schneller Schoolhouse, a Threshing Cook Car, a Homesteader Shack, two of Estevan's original Firetrucks, and a Heritage Mining Display.

Arts council

The Estevan Arts Council, founded in 1967, is a non-profit organisation that offers art classes and workshops, adjudicates art shows, hosts concerts, and provides a youth art scholarships through the work of volunteers and community donations and grants.

Sports

Affinity Place is a 2,650 seat Multi-Purpose Entertainment and Sports Facility that was built to supplement the two other ageing ice surfaces in Estevan, the Civic Auditorium and Lignite Miners Centre. It opened on 15 April 2011. Affinity Place is home to the Estevan Bruins, a junior

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

team playing in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), and the Midget AAA Estevan Bears. Affinity Place also has a

Racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

court, swimming pool, and a

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

. Right next to Affinity Place is the Estevan Curling Club. The nine-team Saskota Baseball League has two teams in Estevan, the Southeast Diamondbacks and the Estevan Tap House Wolves. A former Estevan team, the Estevan Bears, played in the Big 6 Hockey League. They won the Lincoln Trophy three straight years from 1985 to 1987. CJSL AM 1150 broadcasts many Big 6 hockey games.

Climate

Estevan has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

'') It falls into the NRC

Plant Hardiness Zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

4a. Estevan's climate is characterized by cold, long, and dry winters with warm, short and, relatively humid summers. The mean temperature in January, the coldest month, is . The precipitation in winter is chiefly snow, averaging . The spring is a short transitional season, with a mean temperature of and of precipitation, with significant snowfall in April. The summer is usually warm (the mean average high temperature is (average high in July, the warmest month, is and humid ( of total precipitation). Autumn, as spring, is transitional, being warm in September and cooler in October and November. At this time of the year, the average temperature is and the total precipitation is . Estevan is the sunniest city year-round in Canada, and it is also the city with the clearest skies year round in Canada. The highest temperature ever recorded in Estevan was on 5 July 1936, and 5 July 1937. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 11 January 1916, and 16 February 1936.

Gallery

File:20161210 151014 v3.jpg, A downtown street in the winter File:Water and ice (4956918050).jpg, Water tower and ice rink File:Water and ice and rocks (4956918012).jpg, Water tower and curling rink File:The law court in Estevan (4967281723).jpg, The law court File:DP8 6384.jpg, Highway 47 going into Estevan

Local media

Newspapers

* ''The Estevan Mercury'', the newspaper in Estevan since 1903, provides weekly distribution to every household in the City free of charge. The newspaper also provides up-to-date news via online editorial copy and local videos. It also has as free TMC newspaper circulated throughout southeast Saskatchewan to over 9,000 homes; the ''Southeast Trader Express''. * ''Pipeline News, Saskatchewan Petroleum Monthly'' newspaper is also based out of Estevan. Southeast Saskatchewan has a significant amount of oil production, and the Pipeline News' main office is situated locally to report on these matters. * ''Estevan Lifestyles'' is a free circulation weekly publication that shares the stories of the people in the Estevan area and the southeast corner of Saskatchewan. The publication also publishes ''NewsBreak'', a daily coffee paper geared towards lighter reading.Estevan Lifestyles
Sasklifestyles.com. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.

Radio

* CJSL AM 1150, CHSN-FM 102.3, and CKSE-FM 106.1 all broadcast from studios on 5th Street in Estevan. *The news website DiscoverEstevan.com is also run by the radio station offering local news, weather, and sports. All are owned by

Golden West Broadcasting Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. is a Canadian radio and digital media company based in Altona, Manitoba. It is the largest independent radio broadcaster in Canada. The company primarily operates small-market radio stations and internet portals in ...

Notable residents

* Blair Atcheynum,

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) player *

Dave Batters David Batters (July 12, 1969 – June 29, 2009) was a Canadian businessman and politician. Batters was a member of the Conservative Party of Canada in the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Palliser from 2004 to 2008. Ear ...

, politician * Dennis Cooley, poet *

Kimbi Daniels Kimball J. Daniels (born January 19, 1973) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played parts of two seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers. Playing career Daniels's career started with the Swi ...

, hockey player *

Ana Egge Ana G. Egge (born September 20, 1976, in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter. Egge grew up the daughter of a teacher and a wheat farmer in Ambrose, North Dakota, and later moved to Silver City, New ...

, folk singer/songwriter *

Mina Forsyth Mina Forsyth (September 20, 1921 in Estevan, Saskatchewan – 1987 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) was a Canadian artist. She is known for her expressionist and abstract landscapes, figural works and still life paintings. Education In 1955 Mina ...

, artist *

Eric Grimson William Eric Leifur Grimson (born 1953) is a Canadian-born computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as Chancellor from 2011 to 2014. An expert in computer vision, he headed MIT's Department ...

, computer scientist, educator *

Chris Henderson Christopher Henderson (born December 11, 1970) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He earned 79 caps with the U.S. national team and part of the U.S. team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. At the time of his ...

, musician * Howard Hilstrom, politician *

Andrew David Irvine Andrew David Irvine, FSCC (born July 14, 1958) is a Canadian academic who teaches at the University of British Columbia. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Sydney University and is a professor of philosophy and mathematics at UBC Okanagan. He has ...

, playwright *

Tanner Jeannot Tanner Jeannot (born May 29, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Jeannot is known as "The Oxbow Ox" in recognition of his physical play and his hometown of Oxbow, ...

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player for

Nashville Predators The Nashville Predators (commonly referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and ha ...

Todd Kerns Todd "Dammit" Kerns is a Canadian musician who has worked with several Canadian bands, most notably The Age of Electric. Kerns is currently the bass guitarist and back up vocalist for Slash in the band Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The ...

, musician * Ross King, author * Bill Knight, politician * Ed Komarnicki, politician *

Greg Lawrence Greg Lawrence is a Canadian politician elected to represent the electoral district of Moose Jaw Wakamow in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan is the legislative chamber of the Saskatchewan Legisl ...

, politician *

Eli Mandel Eli Mandel (December 3, 1922 – September 3, 1992) was a Canadian poet, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic. Biography Eli Mandel died in relative obscurity. A series of strokes had left him unable to write and, as a ...

, poet *

Fred Mandel Frederick Lawrence Mandel (born 1953) is a Canadian session musician, keyboard player and guitarist. Career Born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Mandel became involved in music from an early age. He started playing the piano at four and picked up t ...

, session musician * Punch McLean, hockey coach *

Gerald McLellan Gerald Peter McLellan (1932-2009) was an Ombudsman in the Province of Saskatchewan,Speers Funeral ChapelMemorial Notice - Gerald Peter McLellan Retrieved 2016-10-20. notable during his tenure for his report on the collapse of the Donald Cormie, P ...

, Saskatchewan ombudsman * Al Nicholson, hockey player *

Derrick Pouliot Derrick Pouliot (born January 16, 1994) is a Canadians, Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the San Jose Barracuda in the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). H ...

, NHL player * Arnold Richardson, curler *

Andy Shauf Andy Shauf is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Regina, Saskatchewan. He plays several instruments, including clarinet.Carla Gillis"Andy Shauf moves to Toronto" ''Now'', 15 November 2016. Early life Shauf was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, gr ...

, musician *

Kim Thorson Kim Thorson (born March 2, 1932) is a lawyer and former political figure in Saskatchewan. He represented Souris-Estevan from 1956 to 1960 as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) member and from 1971 to 1975 as a New Democratic Party (NDP ...

, lawyer and politician *

Blaine Thurier Blaine Thurier (born 1967) is a Canadian musician and film producer. He plays synthesizer with the Canadian indie pop supergroup The New Pornographers. His videos for The New Pornographers have been critically well received. Thurier has written ...

, musician and film producer * Galen Wahlmeier,

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) player and mayor

References

Notes

External links

* * {{Authority control 1892 establishments in Canada Cities in Saskatchewan Mining communities in Saskatchewan Populated places established in 1892