Pinehouse is a
northern village located in the
boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
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 ...
on the western shore of
Pinehouse Lake within the
Canadian Shield.
Travelling by road from Pinehouse, the
Key Lake mine
The Key Lake mine is a former uranium mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is north of Saskatoon by air on the southern rim of the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin. Key Lake was initially developed to open-pit mine two nearby uranium ore deposits: the ...
is 223 km (138 miles) north,
Prince Albert is 346 km (215 miles) south,
La Ronge
La Ronge is a northern town in the boreal forest of central Saskatchewan, Canada. Its location is approximately north of Prince Albert where Highway 2 becomes Highway 102. La Ronge lies on the western shore of Lac la Ronge, is adjacent ...
is 214 km (133 miles) east and
Beauval, the closest community, is 107 km (67 miles) west.
Highway 914 passes through the community and Pinehouse is the only established community along this road, other than uranium mines.
There were 1,074 residents in 2016.
Cree was the mother tongue of 630 of the residents in 2011.
The mayor of this predominantly
Métis settlement is Mike Natomagan. The village's traditional
Cree name is kinêpiko-sâkahikanihk (ᑭᓀᐱᑯ ᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᓂᕽ) meaning ''"at the Snake Lake"''.
History
There was a
North West Company post and a rival post near the mouth of the Tippo River called ''Lac des Serpents'' (Lake of Serpents or Snake Lake) in 1786.
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 a post at the north end of Pinehouse Lake called the ''Souris River Post''. It was located about 2 km west of the mouth of the Belanger River once known as the Souris River. Most of the residents of this settlement which numbered about 100 people in the 1920s and 1930s eventually moved to Pinehouse.
The Souris River Post near Sandfly Lake operated from 1875 to 1939.
The Census of 1906 called this settlement then numbering 73 people ''Souris River on the Churchill''.
Missionaries first visited the
Dene
The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" ha ...
population of Pinehouse Lake in 1899. A smallpox epidemic killed around half of the population of the area in 1900-1901. Some survivors moved up the
Churchill River towards
Patuanak and downriver to
Stanley Mission further depleting the area population.
The 1906 Canada Census uses the name ''Serpent Lake on the Churchill''
to describe the community that then had about 11 people which included the family of Samuel and Veronique Misponass.
A townsite was established in the 1940s and a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
church (St. Dominic) was built in 1944 followed by a store and in 1948 a school. In 1954 the community was renamed Pinehouse Lake.
Pinehouse was originally named Snake Lake (''kinêpiko-sâkahikan'' in Cree).
Although officially named Pinehouse, numerous official sources including the official road map of Saskatchewan issued by the province, identifies the community by the name Pinehouse Lake.
Eighty houses were built between 1967 and 1980 and Pinehouse was connected to the power grid in 1984 replacing a diesel generator set up around 1970. The first road to the community was built from
Highway 2 in 1977.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada, Pinehouse 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.
Infrastructure
Pinehouse is home to a store, a gas station, a
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 ...
detachment, the northern village's office and a health clinic. The community is served by
Pinehouse Lake Airport.
The community is also home to the
Pinehouse Photography Club, a non-profit organization that supports and encourages youth mental health prevention through therapeutic photography.
The ice skating arena features an artificial ice plant.
Education
Pinehouse has two schools - Minahik Waskahigan Elementary School and Minahik Waskahigan High School. The schools are in the Northern Lights School Division #113 and have an enrolment of 400 students and a support staff of 40.
See also
*
List of communities in Northern Saskatchewan
Communities in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada include incorporated municipalities, unincorporated communities and First Nations communities.
Types of incorporated municipalities include urban municipalities, rural municipalities and nor ...
*
List of communities in Saskatchewan
Communities in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada include incorporated municipalities, unincorporated communities and First Nations communities.
Types of incorporated municipalities include urban municipalities, rural municipalities and nor ...
*
Villages of Saskatchewan
A village is a type of incorporated urban municipality in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. A village is created from an organized hamlet by the Minister of Municipal Affairs by ministerial order via section 51 of ''The Municipalities Act'' i ...
References
{{coord, 55, 30, 49, N, 106, 35, 55, W, display=title, region:CA_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki
Division No. 18, Saskatchewan
Northern villages in Saskatchewan
Métis in Saskatchewan
Lands inhabited by indigenous peoples