Whitewood is a town in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. It is approximately east of Regina on the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

Sk Hwy 1. It is situated at the crossroads of two major highways systems — the Trans-Canada, which runs east and west, and Sk Hwy 9, which runs north and south from the US border to

Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan Hudson Bay is a town in the east-central part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, about west of the Manitoba border. The town is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Hudson Bay No. 394. History In 1757, a Hudson's Bay Company f ...

. It is located midway between

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

and Regina. It is administrative headquarters of the

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

band government In Canada, an Indian band (), First Nation band () or simply band, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subject to the ''Indian Act'' (i.e. status Indians or First Nations). Bands are typically small groups of people: the largest in ...

s of the Ochapowace and the Chachacas

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

History

Before the settlement of the west, Whitewood began as a crossing of trails between the

Qu'Appelle Valley The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...

to the north and the Moose Mountains to the south. The

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

trading post was established about the fall of 1891 to approximately the spring of 1906. With the settlement of the west and the coming of the Trans-Continental railway, Whitewood quickly grew into a thriving community. The CPR naming was derived from the White Poplar (''Populus alba''), a deciduous tree with white bark, which was plentiful in the area. By 1882, the town of Whitewood, Provisional District of Assiniboia,

North-West Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated pop ...

was a major stop on the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

. The town grew steadily from that time and was incorporated as a town in 1892. An interesting note is that while the Town Seal has "Incorporated 1893" on it the actual incorporation took place on 30 December 1892. Settlers from many lands came to the area and the multi-national character of the community is seen in the names of the residents. The first Finnish settlement in the west, New Finland is located here, and Hungarians, Swedes, Germans, Poles, Russians, Czechs, English, Scottish and Irish, also made Whitewood their destination in the new world. To quote a prominent writer of that period, and resident of Whitewood John Hawkes, "Whitewood was in the eighties (1880s) the most cosmopolitan point in the west. It came to be a saying that one should know eleven languages to do business in Whitewood." Hawkes penned ''Saskatchewan and Its People'' in three volumes. One of the most unusual and glamorous settlements was that of

the French Counts of St Hubert, Saskatchewan ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

. Headed by the educated Dr Rudolph Meyer, this group of Belgian and French aristocrats aimed to build a life on the Canadian prairies in the style of the French nobility in Europe. Annually the Counts booked the Whitewood Commercial Hotel for the Frenchman's Ball. "Many pretty dresses of the style of the late eighties were in evidence, souvenirs perhaps of better days across the sea. The vivacious Frenchwomen of gentle birth and breeding in fashionable décolleté gowns and jeweled neck and arms lent an air of distinction in spite of the incongruity of the crude setting". Remains of this settlement still exist and many residents of the community are proud of their connection to the ''Most Romantic Settlement in the West''.

Geography

Whitewood is located in the north eastern section of the topographical area named ''Wood Hills'' to the north of Moose Mountain and south of the

Qu'Appelle River The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just s ...

. Whitewood is situated in the Melville Plain of the Aspen Parkland ecoregion. Burrows, Clayridge, Forest Farm, St. Luke, and St. Hubert Mission are small unincorporated areas near Whitewood. The Ochapowace (Ochapowace) Indian Reserve is nearby.

Climate

Whitewood 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 cold ...

, with extreme seasonal temperatures. It has warm summers and cold winters, with the average daily temperatures ranging from in January to in July. Annually, temperatures exceed on an average in late July Typically, summer lasts from late June until late August, and the humidity is seldom uncomfortably high. Winter lasts from November to March, and varies greatly in length and severity. Spring and autumn are both short and highly variable. On 5 July 1937 an extreme high of was recorded, and on 12 January 1916, a record low of .

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 Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Whitewood 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.

Government

The town of Whitewood has a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

as the highest ranking government official. The town also elects

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

s to form the municipal council. Currently the mayor is Rhett Parks, and is serving with councillors Donna Beutler, Chad Kelly, Chris Ashfield, Brian Waynert, Glenn Mantai, and Shawna Stradeski. The town administrator is Lisa Istace. Provincially, Whitewood is within the constituency of Moosomin served by their

Member of legislative assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several national ...

, the honourable Stephen Bonk. Federally, the

Souris—Moose Mountain Souris—Moose Mountain is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada; it has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1988. Geography This electoral district is located in Southeast Saska ...

riding is represented by their Member of Parliament, Robert Kitchen.

Economy

Economically, Whitewood is situated in the Yorkton—Melville economic region. Whitewood along with Broadview, Grenfell, Wolseley are all part of the Mainline Regional Economic Development Authority. REDA's stimulate economic growth in the local area as they are familiar with the inherent needs of the community and stimulate business and government investment resulting in job creation, tourism and recreational facilities.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Whitewood Airport , is located adjacent to Whitewood. Whitewood was established in the late 19th century on the

Trans-Continental railway. Currently, Whitewood is situated at the crossroads of two major highways systems — the

Sk Hwy 1, which runs east and west, and Sk Hwy 9, which runs north and south from the US border to

Media

The

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

is a weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

. Operating as the Whitewood Herald until 2015, the newspaper has been publishing since 1892, making it one of the oldest weekly newspapers in the province. John Hawkes was the editor of the Whitewood Herald from 1897 to 1900. Since 1955, the newspaper has been owned and operated by three different generations of the Ashfield family.

Museums and other points of interest

The Broadview Recreation Site is within of Whitewood, and Spring Fountain Recreation Site is closer at . During Whitewood's centennial year of 1992, they collaborated on the history of the French Counts. The Merchant Bank Heritage Centre soon followed which also celebrates the French Count history and displays the welcoming sign ''The Most Romantic Settlement in the West''. In the fall of 2002, economic development director Janet Blackstock along with Mayor Malcolm Green aimed to restore the homes built in the late 19th century by the French aristocrats and paint outside murals in Whitewood to re-vitalize the local history. One mural was painted in 2000 showing the town in 1890. The area of Whitewood claims that during the late 19th century, there were more aristocrats here than anywhere else in North America.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Towns in Saskatchewan Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Division No. 5, Saskatchewan