Lac Ste. Anne is a large lake in

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordere ...

, Canada. It is located in

Lac Ste. Anne County Lac Ste. Anne County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Census Division 13, north west of Edmonton. Highway 43 stretches across this county. Its municipal office is located in the Hamlet of Sangudo. The c ...

, along Highway 43, 75 km west of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. The lake has a total area of 54.5 km², a maximum depth of 9 m, and an average depth of 4.8 m. Lac Ste. Anne lies at an elevation of 730 m, and has a drainage area of 619 km². The eutrophic lake is formed along the Sturgeon River through which it drains into the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

. Two islands are found at the western end of the lake, Farming Island and Horse Island, while the small Castle Island and tiny Rock Island lie at the eastern tip of the lake. Along the southern area coal mines generate power and employment, and recreational businesses have flourished because of the lakes. Agriculture is still a mainstay and the area is known for some of the best oat crops in Canada.

History

Lac Ste. Anne was first called (God's Lake) by the Nakota Sioux and (Lake of the Spirit) by the

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

before the arrival of the settlers. First Nations and Métis peoples hunted buffalo and fished in the lake. Legends told of a large serpent that lived in the lake, where it created dangerous, unpredictable currents that could easily capsize a canoe. Very few people saw the serpent, but when 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 div ...

(HBC) came employees renamed the lake Devil's Lake, which was a mistaken translation of the Cree name for it. The Cree name actually means Spirit Lake, because they consider it a very sacred place. Elders of Alexis Reserve recall their grandparents telling of how as children they would go out on the lake and peer down through the then clear water to the lake bottom in search of the monster. They would hope and fear that they might see its legendary form.

Lac Ste. Anne Mission

The village of Lac Ste. Anne is one of the first permanent Métis communities in what later became Alberta and the first Catholic mission. Lac Ste. Anne was visited by Jean-Baptiste Thibault, a Catholic priest, in 1842. Two years later in 1844 he established the Mission of Lac Ste. Anne. There were 30 Métis families living here, who had come there in the 1830s, and the church served the Métis and First Nations of the area who had converted to Catholicism. He renamed the lake Lac Ste. Anne, honouring

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

. Lac Ste. Anne was in a central location with good fertile fields, tall trees for lumber, and plenty of fish and wildlife. It was also far away from the HBC politics in

Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...

The missionaries began to spread the teachings of the church, and also taught the people how to farm. The people in the area could see the buffalo was declining and the missionaries wanted to make the Métis people into farmers. By 1859 the mission boasted it had 17 fat and fine cows, 15 horses, 10 dogs, 10 cats, and a garden with flowerbeds. Pigs and sheep were not raised because of the dogs and wild predators. Crops included wheat, barley, potatoes, cabbage, onions, and turnips. In 1859 three

Grey Nuns The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founde ...

made the journey from Montreal to the mission, where they arrived on September 24. They began their lives in Lac Ste. Anne by learning the Cree language, starting a school, helping in the gardens and painting the windows of the church so that worshippers would not be distracted during services. The Mission grew until there were over two thousand people. An HBC post, a separate school, an orphanage retreat, a

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 ...

(NWMP) barracks, a dance hall, a post office, several stores, saloons and hotels moved into the area complementing the church, rectory and convent. At one time the mission was larger in population and commerce than Fort Edmonton.

Albert Lacombe Albert Lacombe (28 February 1827 – 12 December 1916), commonly known in Alberta simply as Father Lacombe, was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic missionary who travelled among and evangelized the Cree and also visited the Blackfoot First Nations ...

, a Catholic priest who arrived in 1852, left Lac Ste. Anne in 1861 to build a new mission at St. Albert. When he left the mission of Lac Ste. Anne it was almost deserted by pastors and followers of the church. All that was left were a few families, the church, the rectory and the Grey Nuns' residence.

Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage

Father Joseph J. Lestanc

O.M.I. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

organized the first pilgrimage to Lac Ste. Anne in 1889 in honour of Saint Anne, whose feast day is on July 26. In 1926 over 5,500 pilgrims attended. Many came by a special train from the city of

, away. Today pilgrims come to the lake from all over North America, many walking miles bare-footed as penance, to witness or be a part of the miracle of healing. A display of crutches and canes have been left behind in the shrine by pilgrims. Thirty to forty thousand people now attend the annual pilgrimage in the last week of July. Oaths of sobriety, along with other life-style promises are made, and prayers and forgiveness are given. The Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage was declared a

national historic site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...

in 2004 for its social and cultural importance. In May, 2022 it was announced that

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

would visit the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage the following July.

Alberta Beach

Several miles east, Lac Ste. Anne was the hostess of more history. In 1912 the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Mani ...

(CNoR) arrived in what is now

Alberta Beach Alberta Beach is a village in central Alberta, Canada, west of Edmonton. It is located on the southeast shore of Lac Ste. Anne, approximately west of Highway 43 and north of Highway 633. Alberta Beach's economy it is centred on tourism and r ...

, and brought its employees out for company picnics and holidays. By 1920 they had incorporated the area as a

summer village Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, with ...

, built a dance pavilion, a large wooden pier, and several cabins. Other companies such as Marshall Wells and Woodwards then began to bring their employees out for the same relaxing and beautiful atmosphere. There was such a demand for this atmosphere that the ''Moonlight Express'' was started. The CNoR picked people up in Edmonton on Saturday mornings, took them to Alberta Beach, then picked them up Sunday night to take them back to Edmonton. Soon people began purchasing and building their own cabins and small businesses. On January 1, 1999, the summer village of Alberta Beach became a village. It now has 884 year-round residents and can swell to over 3,000 people during long weekends. A hotel and many small businesses operate within the village.

Hamlet of Gunn

In the 1900s the Hamlet of Gunn (named after

Peter Gunn ''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...

) was also developing as a major trade centre, consisting mainly of Métis and First Nations. There were two flour mills, a blacksmith shop, the hotel, several stores and trading posts that nestled beside the train station. In the 1930s an army training centre was built where the Gunn housing centre now operates. Prosperity reigned until the army left and the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

removed its station. With it, many of the residents and businesses also left. Today all that remains is a combination store, laundromat, restaurant, car wash and a post office, community hall and university observation and research station, as well as the Gunn Housing and Senior's Centre.

Castle Island

A French viscount, Charles de Caze, in the 1890s began building a castle on the small island located on the northeast shores of Lac Ste. Anne, which he named Constance Island, in honour of his only daughter. The castle was to be four storeys high, built of stone. The walls were to be thick, and crowning it was to be a stone battlement running all the way around. The castle was to be his retirement home but he died at the age of 44 and did not complete his project. For many years, only the two storeys of his dream castle stood. Approximately twenty years later a Mr. Shorty purchased the island. He demolished the castle and transported several cabins to Constance Island. During

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

it was an excellent spot for parties and fun. Years later he built a causeway which provided better access to the island. Eventually the island was sold, renamed Castle Island, subdivided, and incorporated into a summer village.

Darwell

A rail station in 1912 also created the community of Darwell, located between Lac Ste. Anne and Isle Lake. The naming of this station caused many debates with no resolution, until an enterprising man took out his hymnbook and randomly picked a good tune. The tune had the name Darwell in it. It also became known throughout Alberta as a hobo stop because of a ranch which never turned away anyone asking for shelter. Many men out of work rode the rail to Darwell to get food and lodging in exchange for work. As the story goes many men wanted by the law also found refuge, and the NWMP made many trips to the Hobo Ranch. Today Darwell has a store, volunteer fire department, community hall, old age home and school. The old ranch has long disappeared.

Communities

The Alexis Indian Reserve of the

Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation The Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation ( sto, Cade Wicashdabi) no. 437 is a Nakoda First Nation which reserves near Edmonton, Hinton, and Whitecourt, in the Canadian province of Alberta, and headquartered at 54° N and 114°, about west of Edmonton. T ...

is located on the northern shore of the lake, and

is located on the southeastern shore. The summer villages of

Ross Haven Ross Haven is a summer village in Alberta, Canada. It is located on the northern shore of Lac Ste. Anne, south of Highway 43. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Summer Village of Ross Haven had ...

and

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

, along with the subdivision of Corsair Cove, and the unincorporated hamlet of

Gunn Gunn may refer to: Places * Gunn City, Missouri, a village * Gunn, Northern Territory, outer suburb of Darwin * Gunn, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet * Gunn Valley, a mountain valley in British Columbia, Canada * Gun Lake (British Columbia), a Canadi ...

lie along the northern shore. The summer villages of Castle Island, Sunset Point and Val Quentin lie to either side of Alberta Beach. The summer village of West Cove lies on the southern shore of the west basin.

Recreation

Two campgrounds are located around the lake, one at Alberta Beach and the other at

, on the north-eastern shore. There are also two golf courses in the immediate area, one at Alberta Beach, and the other in Ross Haven. There are two Bible camps with lakefront property on Lac Ste. Anne: Ross Haven Bible Camp, located in Ross Haven, and run by the Canadian Sunday School Mission, and Sunset Point Christian Camp, in Sunset Point, and run by the Alberta Pentecostal Missions Society. Fishing is a popular recreational activity, species including whitefish,

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

. Water based sports include

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

and

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

in summer and

snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

in winter.

References

External links

Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage HistoryLac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage National Historic Site of Canada
*

Chelsea Vowel Chelsea Vowel, who often writes as âpihtawikosisân (Cree syllabics: , IPA: , i.e., Métis, lit. "half-son"), is a Métis writer and lawyer from near Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, whose work focuses on language, gender identity, and cultural resurgen ...

{{authority control Ste. Anne National Historic Sites in Alberta Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Lac Ste. Anne County Catholic pilgrimage sites Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America Ste. Anne