Pinehouse () is a northern village located in the

boreal forest Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by pinophyta, coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. I ...

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 ...

on the western shore of

Pinehouse Lake Pinehouse Lake () is a lake in northern 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 Mani ...

within the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

. Travelling by road from Pinehouse, the Key Lake mine is north, Prince Albert is south, La Ronge is east and Beauval, the closest community, is west. Highway 914 passes through the community and Pinehouse is the only established community along this road. There were 1,074 residents in 2016.

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 ...

was the mother tongue of 630 of the residents in 2011. The mayor of this predominantly

community is Mike Natomagan.

History

There was a

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

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), 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 ...

had a post at the north end of Pinehouse Lake called the ''Souris River Post''. It was located about 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, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...

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 The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 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 ...

, 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; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

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.

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 Indigenous municipalities in Canada

History

Demographics

Infrastructure

Education

See also

References