Rosthern is a town at the juncture of Highway 11 and Highway 312 in central

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 ...

, Canada. It is roughly halfway between the cities of

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

and

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

History

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

settlers, led by Gerhard Ens, began arriving in the area around 1890, with the establishment of the Qu'Appelle, Long Lake & Saskatchewan Railway to

. The post office was established in 1893, and by 1898 the community achieved village status. In 1903, Rosthern was incorporated as a town. There are several apocryphal versions of the story about how the town got its name. One is that in the late 1880s when the railway ran through from Regina to Prince Albert a man by the name of Ross drowned in the creek that flows through the town. ''Terne'' is old English for tarn meaning a pool, and the name stuck. In all likelihood, however, the town's name echoes an old world name brought over by a homesick worker on the railroad, in this case that of Rostherne, a village in the United Kingdom.

Attractions and recreation

Rosthern has a public library, many parks and walking trails, Valley Regional Park with an 18-hole grass green golf course, two ball-diamonds, two indoor hockey rinks, a curling rink, bowling alley, and three school gyms. An outdoor swimming pool was completed in 2005. Rosthern is also home to the Youth Farm Bible Camp. Nearby Rosthern is the Seager Wheeler Farm, a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

, and the Rosthern Mennonite Heritage Museum ( 1909–1910). It is a Municipal Heritage Property on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.

Valley Regional Park

Valley Regional Park (), founded in 1974, is a

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distr ...

about north-east of Rosthern on the western shore of Rempel Lake. The park has an 18-hole golf course, campground, and picnic area. There is also a 100-foot slide and an 80-foot

zip line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide''Who Really Benefits from Tourism'', Publ. Equations, Karnataka, India, 2010. Working Papers Series. "Canopy Tourism"page 37/ref>Jacques Marais, Lisa De Speville, ''Adventure Racing'', ...

. The campground has about 80 campsites and modern washrooms and showers. Access to the park is from Highway 11. Valley Regional Park Golf Club is an 18-hole, par 72 course with grass greens and 6,577 total yards. There is a pro shop, practice green, and a licensed clubhouse.

Churches

Rosthern is home to over ten churches including

, Ukrainian Orthodox,

Swedenborgian The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) can refer to any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to ...

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 ...

, Ukrainian Catholic,

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

, Christian & Missionary Alliance, and

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

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 ...

, Rosthern 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.

Notable people

* Bill Braden, politician * George Braden, 2nd Premier of Northwest Territories * Russ Brayshaw, hockey player * Onésime Dorval, educator * Wayne Elhard, politician * Isaak Elias, politician * Gerhard Ens, town founder * Jerry Friesen, football player * Ben Heppner, politician * Jim Hrycuik, hockey player * Roger Kortko, hockey player * George Langley, politician * Frederick Loveroff, artist *

Archibald Peter McNab Archibald Peter McNab (May 29, 1864 – April 29, 1945) was the sixth lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan from 1936 until 1945. He was the last lieutenant-governor of the province to live in Government House. He was born in Glengarry County, ...

, 6th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan *

Myles Morin Myles Leslie Morin (born February 16, 1954) is a financial services executive and former political figure in Saskatchewan, Canada. He represented The Battlefords from 1982 to 1986 in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Progressive Co ...

, politician * Earle Morris, curler * Barbara Nickel, writer * Erdman Penner, Disney screenwriter * Jim Penner, businessman and politician * J. D. Denis Pelletier, judge * Richie Regehr, hockey player *

Robyn Regehr Robyn Regehr (born April 19, 1980) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He was a first-round draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche, selected 19th overall at the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, but was traded to the Calgary Flames prior ...

, hockey player * Jeanne Thomarat, artist *

Maurice Vellacott Maurice Vellacott (born September 29, 1955) is a former Canadians, Canadian politician from Saskatchewan. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2015 as the Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) for the Elec ...

, politician * Seager Wheeler, author * Art Wiebe, hockey player * Berny Wiens, politician

References

External links

* {{Authority control Towns in Saskatchewan Rosthern No. 403, Saskatchewan Division No. 15, Saskatchewan Mennonitism in Saskatchewan Russian Mennonite diaspora in Canada