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Prince Albert
City
City of Prince Albert
Flag Coat of arms
Nicknames:  "P.A."[1]
Motto:  Gateway to the North
Prince Albert Location of Prince Albert Show map of Saskatchewan Prince Albert Prince Albert (Canada) Show map of Canada
Coordinates: 53°12′N 105°45′W / 53.200°N 105.750°W / 53.200; -105.750
Country	Canada
Province	Saskatchewan
Census division	15
Rural municipality	Prince Albert
Town	1885
Incorporated City	October 8, 1904
Government
• City Mayor	Greg Dionne
• Governing body	Prince Albert City Council
• MPs	Randy Hoback (CON)
• MLAs	Joe Hargrave (SKP) Alana Ross (SKP)
Area  (2021)[2]
• Land	67.17 km2 (25.93 sq mi)
• Population centre	21.37 km2 (8.25 sq mi)
• Census agglomeration	2,537.68 km2 (979.80 sq mi)
Elevation	440 m (1,440 ft)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	37,756
• Density	562.1/km2 (1,456/sq mi)
• Population centre	36,768
• Population centre density	21.37/km2 (55.3/sq mi)
• Census agglomeration	45,718
• Census agglomeration density	2,537.68/km2 (6,572.6/sq mi)
Demonym	Prince Albertan
Time zone	UTC−06:00 (CST)
Forward sortation area	S6V - S6X
Isbister Settlement	1862
SK HQ North-West Mounted Police	1886
Climate	Dfb
Website	www.citypa.ca
[3][4]

Prince Albert^[6] is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada, after Saskatoon and Regina. It is situated near the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city 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 51 km (32 mi) north of the city and contains a wealth of lakes, forest, and wildlife. The city itself is located in a transition zone between the aspen parkland and boreal forest biomes. Prince Albert is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No. 461, of which it is the seat, but is politically separate.

History

The area was named kistahpinanihk by the Cree, which translates to "sitting pretty place",^[7] "great meeting place" or "meeting place".^[3]

The first trading post set up in the area was built in 1776 by Peter Pond.^[8] James Isbister, an Anglo-Métis 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.

The community received a boost in 1866 when Reverend James Nisbet, a Canada Presbyterian Church minister arrived to establish a mission for the Cree. Nisbet named the mission after Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria,^[9] who had died in 1861, from whom the present city derives its name. In 1879, the Presbyterian Church brought out Lucy Margaret Baker to run the local mission school.^[10] During the same year, the local Freemasons established the first lodge in what is now the province of Saskatchewan: Kinistino Lodge No. 1, which still exists.^[11] "The Mission", the settlement centrally located, and "Porter Town", located to the west, were the two communities that would come together to form what is now Prince Albert.^[4] The settlement east of Prince Albert was termed Goschen before finally amalgamated, however East Prince Albert still appears on a 1924 map.^[4][12]

In 1884, Honore Jaxon and James Isbister were involved in the movement which brought Louis Riel back to Canada. Riel returned from the United States following a political exile resulting from the Red River Rebellion that had occurred in 1869–1870. Five hundred people gathered to hear Riel speak one month after his return.

In the North-West Rebellion of the 1885, Prince Albert Volunteers bore the heaviest casualties of the fighting at the Battle of Duck Lake. 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. After the Battle of Batoche, Major General Frederick Middleton marched to Prince Albert to relieve the town. Prince Albert, with a population of about 800 people, was incorporated as a town the same year under its first mayor, Thomas McKay.^[13] In 1904, the settlement was incorporated as the City of Prince Albert. Its government is of a council-mayor type.

Prince Albert was the capital of the District of Saskatchewan, a regional administrative division of what then constituted the North-West Territories. The District of Saskatchewan was formed on May 8, 1882, and named Prince Albert as its capital.^[14] This ended in 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province and Regina was designated the new provincial capital.

Prince Albert was one of the rival candidates to house either the University of Saskatchewan or the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary. The university was built in Saskatoon and the penitentiary was built in Prince Albert in 1911.^[15]

The federal constituency of Prince Albert has been represented by three prime ministers of Canada:

• John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister (1957–1963), became the Member of Parliament for Lake Centre in 1940, and when that riding was abolished in 1952, represented Prince Albert from 1953 until his death in 1979.^[16]
• William Lyon Mackenzie King tenth Prime Minister, represented Prince Albert from 1926 to 1945.^[17]
• Sir Wilfrid Laurier seventh Prime Minister, represented Prince Albert in the Saskatchewan provisional district (still part of Northwest Territories) in 1896, before returning to his Quebec East riding later that year.^[18]

Royal visits

Prince Albert has welcomed the following members of Canada's Royal Family:

• The Princess Margaret – 1958 and 1980
• The Duke and Duchess of York (The Prince Andrew and Sarah) – 1989
• The Earl of Wessex (The Prince Edward) – 2003

Geography

Prince Albert is located on the White Fox Plain of the Saskatchewan River lowlands. These lowlands are located in the physiographic region of the Saskatchewan Plains Region of the Central Lowlands Province.^{[19]: 40, 41} The natural vegetation of the area consists of aspen parkland to the south and southern boreal forest to the north of the North Saskatchewan River.^[19] These two ecoregions have differing soil types: the northern forested soils are brunisolic and sandy, whereas south of the river are black chernozemic soils.^{[19]: 131, 131} The North Saskatchewan River runs through the centre of Prince Albert. The main soils of the city of Prince Albert are those of the valley complex consisting mainly of regosolic soils which produce natural vegetation which are not forest nor grassland but a complex of the two.^{[19]: 70, 71} It is here that the treeline of Saskatchewan begins, and to the north of the city begins the forested growth of Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana), as well as other boreal forest growth in the Prince Albert National Park, and Nisbet forest. The forests north of the city, especially those containing Jack Pine are infected with Dwarf Mistletoe and various projects have been undertaken to stop the spread of this parasitic plant.^{[19]: 92, 93} The agricultural soils around Prince Albert have some limitations and about 35% of the land is covered with sloughs or potholes. Creek systems such as the Red Deer Hill Creek and McFarlane Creek drain into the South Saskatchewan River. In the past these creeks have been known to dry up allowing farmers to cut hay, but in recent years these waterways have been overfilling due to large amounts of winter run-off and increase of the water table.^{[19]: 106, 107} The land use is divided into the southern woodland area north of Prince Albert and cropland to the south.^{[19]: 110, 111}

The Quaternary glacial geology precludes the region to have been covered by the large prehistoric glacial lake called Lake Agassiz. The ancient shoreline can be seen along the "Esker Trail" in Narrow Hills Provincial Park which is just north-east of the city. Many different types of fossils have been found in the Prince Albert region. Along the riverbanks of the Shell River can be observed a stratum containing Quaternary bivalve mollusk shells and in 2014 the vertebrae and bone fragments of a bison were found by local college students attending Saskatchewan Polytechnic in the Shell River area. Various areas (especially eroded river banks) have been known to reveal bison skulls and other various types of fossils. Claims have also been made of various types of marine fossils including oysters, clams, corals and other invertebrates are to be found mixed in fossil matrixes just east of the city near the small village of Love^[20] The bedrock geology is a part of the phanerozoic basin and belongs to the Lea Park and Milk River Formation.^{[19]: 76, 77}

The bulk of the city's population and commercial areas are located on the south shore of the river, with only a few sparsely populated neighbourhoods, an industrial area, and the airport (along with some parkland) on the north.

Climate

Prince Albert experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb). It is close to being subarctic (Dfc) with May and September mean temperatures being just above 10 °C (50 °F). The coldest month on average is January with an average low of −22.8 °C (−9.0 °F), and July is the hottest month with an average high of 24.2 °C (75.6 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Prince Albert was 39.4 °C (102.9 °F) on July 19, 1941.^[21] The coldest temperature ever recorded was −56.7 °C (−70.1 °F) on February 1, 1893.^[22] Winter lasts five months of the year with January daily mean of −17.2 °C (1.0 °F), causing a great temperature amplitude in comparison to the 17.9 °C (64.2 °F) mean temperature of July. The variability of the climate is further demonstrated by the brief transition zones with April recording both above and below 32 °C (90 °F) and −33 °C (−27 °F) respectively.