Prince Albert Saskatchewan Canada |
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Prince Albert is the third-largest
city in Saskatchewan, Canada.
It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks along
the North
Saskatchewan River. Prince Albert is known as the "Gateway to
the North" because it is the last major centre along the route
to the resources of northern Saskatchewan. Prince
Albert National Park is located just 51 km north of the city
and contains a huge wealth of lakes, forest, and wildlife. The
first white man to come through the area that is now Prince Albert
was Henry
Kelsey in 1692. The first establishment in the area was a
trading post set up by Peter
Pond, which the area is now named after (1776). James
Isbister, an Anglo-Metis employee
of the Hudson's
Bay Company settled on the site of the current city in 1862.
He farmed there until 1866,
and had been joined by a number of families who called the site
Isbister's Settlement. He later moved back to Prince Albert and
lived out his remaining days there. The community was founded
in 1866,
by Rev.
James Nisbet, a Canada
Presbyterian Church minister who came to establish a mission
for the Cree. It was he who
named the community after Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in honour of the deceased 1861 husband
of Queen
Victoria. In 1879 the Presbyterian
Church brought out Lucy
Margaret Baker to run the mission school. In 1884 Honore
Jaxon and James
Isbister were involved in the movement which brought Louis
Riel back to Canada. In the Northwest
Rebellion of the following year, Prince
Albert Volunteers bore the heaviest casualties of the fighting
at the Battle
of Duck Lake, and surrounding settlers took refuge with
the North
West Mounted Police in a hastily improvised stockade at
Prince Albert fearing an attack by Gabriel
Dumont which never came. |
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