Turtleford is a town in the Rural Municipality of Mervin No. 499, 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 ...

. Turtleford is located on Highway 26 near the intersection / concurrency with

Highway 3 The following highways are numbered 3, H-3, PRI-3, AH3, E03 and R3. For roads numbered A3, see A3 roads. For roads numbered M3, see M3 (disambiguation)#Roads, M3. For roads numbered N3, see N3 (disambiguation)#Roads, N3. For roads numbered 3A, see ...

and Highway 303. The nearest cities are

North Battleford North Battleford is a city in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the seventh largest city in the province and is directly across the North Saskatchewan River from the town of Battleford. Together, the two communities are known as "The B ...

and

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administra ...

. The Turtlelake River runs through Turtleford, and nearby are Brightsand Lake and Turtle Lake. Turtleford has the Canada's largest turtle statue (more than eight feet tall), named Ernie. "Ernie the Turtle" is on Highway 26 near the south edge of town. A small vulnerable songbird called

Sprague's pipit Sprague's pipit (''Anthus spragueii'') is a small songbird (passerine) in the family Motacillidae that breeds in the short- and mixed-grass prairies of North America. Migratory, it spends the winters in the southwestern United States and northern ...

has a breeding range in the northern

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and amongst their breeding spots is Turtleford, Saskatchewan.

History

First settled in 1907 and 1908 the town was named for its proximity to the early river crossing (or ford) on the Turtlelake River. A post office opened in 1913 and by 1914 the ongoing extension of a

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonto ...

(CNoR) branch from North Battleford had reached Turtleford. By 1915 dozens of businesses had opened and Turtleford became a major centre for the area population. The North Battleford — Turtleford Branch of the CNoR (later merged into

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

), which primarily serviced the

grain elevators A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

used by the farmers northwest of North Battleford, ceased operation by 2005, when the remaining elevators closed. The branch had served Hamlin,

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Meota Meota ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Meota No. 468 and Census Division No. 17. The village name is derived from the Cree phrase Meotate or Mo-Was-In-Ota, meaning " ...

(1910 extension), Cavalier, Vawn, Edam, Mervin and Turtleford, and had been extended farther northwest to Cleeves,

Spruce Lake Spruce Lake is located northwest of Piseco, New York. Fish species present in the lake are brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonid ...

, St. Walburg (1919 extension), with a fork to Paradise Hill and Frenchman Butte. The rail line and Saskatchewan Highway 26 ran beside each other from Prince to St. Walburg.

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 ...

, Turtleford 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.

Education

Turtleford (Turtleford Community School) belongs to Turtleford School Division #65 a part of Northwest School Division. Turtleford is served by Lakeland Library Region — Turtleford Branch

Media

*Turtleford is served by The Northwest News weekly newspaper

Notable people

* Eric B. Rosendahl, Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

for West Yellowhead, May 5, 2015 – March 19, 2019

References

External links

* {{coord, display=title, name=Turtleford, Saskatchewan, 53, 23, N, 108, 57, W, region:CA_type:city Towns in Saskatchewan Mervin No. 499, Saskatchewan