Nestled in the Qu'Appelle River valley, 70 km north-east of Regina, between Echo and Mission Lakes of the Fishing Lakes, lies the town of Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan. This town, with a population of 1,972 residents as of 2021, is a junction of several highways including Highway 35, Highway 10, Highway 22, Highway 56, and Highway 215.
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 itself first used the name for a post north of present-day Whitewood (some 174 km east of Regina on Highway 1) from 1813 to 1819.
The town was originally established in 1864 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post and was the hub of several historic trails that traversed the northwest. An Anglican mission was established, which still survives as the town's St. John the Evangelist Anglican parish church. The post was revived again from 1864 to 1911.
The name "Qu'Appelle" comes from French for 'who calls' and is derived from its Cree name, kah-tep-was (in Modern Plains Cree: kâ-têpwêt 'river that calls'). The name refers to the once-popular legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley versified by E. Pauline Johnson and known nationwide.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fort Qu'Appelle had a population of 1,972 living in 850 of its 936 total private dwellings, a change of -3.4% from its 2016 population of 2,042. With a land area of 5.09 km2, it had a population density of 387.4/km2 in 2021.
The town's substantial growth beyond its status as a Hudson's Bay Company "factory" first occurred in the 1880s and 1890s when European settlement began in the region as the Canadian Pacific Railway moved westwards: a post office opened in 1880.
Despite the accelerating decline of rural Saskatchewanian population in the post-World War II years as farms needed to be larger and therefore fewer in number for economic viability, the town grew through most of the 1950s and 1960s as a cottage community serving the Qu'Appelle Lakes summer-cottage country in the valley up- and down-river from the town.
Maurice Macdonald Seymour, Commissioner of Public Health, was a physician and surgeon of the early North-West Territories in Canada. He founded the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League which incorporated and constructed the Fort Qu'Appelle sanitarium. This tuberculosis sanatorium was operated by the provincial department of public health under the direction of R.G. Ferguson and opened in 1917 at nearby Fort San.
The former Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital was replaced in 2004 by the All Nations Healing Hospital. The hospital is one of the first health care facilities in Canada owned and operated by First Nations governments.
Fort Qu'Appelle has a semi-arid, highland continental climate with dry winters and cool summers. Fort Qu'Appelle's winters can be uncomfortably cold; but warm, dry Chinook winds routinely blow into the city from the Pacific Ocean during the winter months, providing the occasional break from the cold especially during the times of El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
Fort Qu'Appelle and nearby Qu'Appelle Valley sites have almost from the beginning of township provided ample recreational sites and are a notable tourist destination both in summer and winter. The lakes afford swimming, boating and other water-related activities in summer and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing in winter.
The most notable tourist event is Treaty 4 Gathering, a week-long event celebrating the signing of Treaty 4. The event is held in September, during the week of the 15th. Pow wows are held daily during the week.
The movie Skipped Parts, set in Wyoming, had scenes filmed in Fort Qu'Appelle and in nearby towns as well as the city of Regina. The CBC movie Betrayed was filmed primarily in Fort Qu'Appelle, with notable sites including the old hospital (both in and out). The television series Life Without Borders is filmed and produced in the Fort Qu'Appelle area.
