Fort Qu'Appelle

Fort Qu'Appelle is town of 2,000 people (2016) in Qu'Appelle Valley along the transition between Southeastern Saskatchewan and East Central Saskatchewan regions.

Understand
Fort Qu'Appelle was established as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in 1852, and developed into a service centre for area settlers. Fort Qu'Appelle had a bid to succeed Battleford as the territorial capital, but lost out to Regina in 1882. It lies between Echo Lake and Mission Lakes, and should not be confused with the once-significant nearby town of Qu'Appelle, which is 28 km to the south along the Trans-Canada Highway.

Fort Qu'Appelle maintains cross country ski trails and a snowmobile trail system. Opportunities for ice fishing are also available.

History
The current site is the third Fort Qu'Appelle. The first was a North West Company trading post (1801–05), also in the valley but near what is now the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. The Hudson's Bay Company first used the name for a post north of present-day Whitewood (some 174 km east of Regina on Number 1 Highway) from 1813 to 1819.

Prior to the mid-19th-century establishment of a longer lasting fur-trading post here, it was the hub of several historic trails that traversed the northwest. It was the site of a Hudson's Bay Company post from 1852 to 1854. An Anglican mission was established, which survives as the town's St. John the Evangelist Anglican parish church.

The post was revived again from 1864 to 1911. With the signing of Treaty 4 by Cree and Salteaux Aboriginal peoples at Fort Qu'Appelle, the North-West Mounted Police, now the RCMP, arrived.

Farm development began in the 1880s and farmers required a nearby urban centre for selling their grain and other products, purchasing agricultural and domestic supplies and for social gathering beyond rural schools and churches.

The name "Qu'Appelle" comes from "is French for 'who calls' and is derived from its Cree name, kah-tep-was ('river that calls'). There are several versions of the origin of this name, but the most popular suggests it refers to a Cree legend of two ill-fated lovers." The name refers to the once-popular legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley versified by Pauline Johnson and known nation-wide. "Fort Qu'Appelle was the crossroads of a number of historic trails that traversed the North-West Territories."

Get in
Fort Qu'Appelle is 70 km northeast of Regina (via Highway 10) and 550 km west of Winnipeg.

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Abernethy
32 km east of Fort Qu'Appelle on Hwys 10 & 22



Katepwa Beach
16 km southeast of Fort Qu'Appelle on Hwy 56



Qu'Appelle
south of Fort Qu'Appelle on Hwy 35; east of Regina on the Trans-Canada Highway. Formerly a major distribution centre for the then District of Assiniboia in the North-West Territories (now southern Saskatchewan) and considered for the territorial capital, it was supplanted by Regina. Numerous historical buildings still remain.