Ponteix (, ) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in southwestern

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 ...

, Canada, 86 km (53 mi) southeast of

Swift Current Swift Current is the fifth largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is situated along the Trans Canada Highway west of Moose Jaw, and east of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Swift Current grew 6.8% between 2011 and 2016, ending up at ...

. It is located on Highway 628 just north of

Highway 13 The following roads may be referred to as Route 13 or Highway 13. For a list of roads named A13, see List of A13 roads. International * Asian Highway 13 * European route E13 * European route E013 Afghanistan *The Kabul–Behsud Highway - ...

History

In 1908, Father Albert-Marie Royer from the Auvergne region in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

established a parish and hamlet called Notre-Dame d’Auvergne north of Notukeu Creek. Five years later, the townsite was moved south of the creek when the Canadian Pacific Railway laid track south of the creek. After the move, the community was renamed Ponteix after Father Royer's former parish in France (Le Ponteix, commune of

Aydat Aydat (; oc, Aidac) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. The Lac d'Aydat is located in the commune. Population See also * Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department * Ponteix, Saskatchewan ...

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, Ponteix 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. According to the 2011 federal census, 175 of Ponteix's residents spoke both official languages (English and French).

Attractions

* Plesiosaur Statue: Near Ponteix was the site of a plesiosaur find in the early 1990s. In 1995 community members and students of Ponteix school contributed small articles to this plesiosaur statue before it was filled with cement and painted by the townspeople in a ceremony commemorating the discovery of the original plesiosaur's bones. * Notukeu Heritage Museum located in Ponteix features prehistoric artifacts. * Notre Dame D'Auvergne Catholic Church, a brick and concrete structure in Ponteix built in 1929, features twin steeples and houses a large wood carving of the Pieta. The Pieta statue came to Canada in 1909 and was saved when the 1916 church was destroyed by fire in 1923. A description of the oak statue in 1954 by Abbot Jerome Webber of St. Peter's Abbey claims it was made in France over four hundred years ago, was saved by peasants during the French Revolution and was once covered in pure gold.

Notable residents

Mark Lamb, a former professional hockey player and now assistant coach for the

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and were founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minne ...

, was born in Ponteix.

References

Towns in Saskatchewan Division No. 3, Saskatchewan {{SKDivision3-geo-stub