Lumsden is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

in the

Qu'Appelle Valley The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...

in south central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Canada, 31 km northwest of the city of Regina. It is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Lumsden No. 189. The town functions as both a farming community and an unofficial suburb of Regina. Lumsden has an active artistic community, which consists of many writers, painters and sculptors.

History

Settlers first arrived in 1881 and the area came to be commonly known as Happy Hollow. When the Qu'Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railway came through the community in 1889, the name was changed to Lumsden after Hugh Lumsden, a senior engineer with the railroad. The town has been repeatedly flooded, with major flood events occurring in 1892, 1904, 1916, 1948, and 1969. In 1974, Lumsden experienced the highest water levels in the town's history; volunteers from Regina came to help with sandbagging. The town subsequently straightened the Qu'Appelle River's channel and built dikes. The Town was at risk for flooding again in 2011 after a wet fall winter of record snowfall; however, it did not flood. The community was chosen by Harrowsmith Magazine in 2002 as the "prettiest" town in the province.

Centennial

Official town centennial celebrations were held in March 2005. In May 2005, Lumsden hosted

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

and The

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...

at the Lumsden Sports Centre. Hundreds of guests were entertained by Marny Duncan-Cary, the Lumsden Community Choir, the Riel Reelers, and the Lumsden & District Band and Jazz Ensemble. The event was held in celebration of both the town and the province's centenaries, and was the only engagement of Canada's Queen outside urban centres on that visit to Saskatchewan.

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; french: Statistique Canada), 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 cultu ...

, Lumsden 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.

Climate

Community events

Lumsden Duck Derby

Each year since 1987, the town of Lumsden hosts a fundraiser in which thousands of numbered plastic ducks are raced down the Qu'Appelle River. Participants purchase a numbered duck which is entered in the race, and the first ducks across the finish line win their owners cash and prizes. Proceeds from the derby benefit the sports center in town. The derby also hosts a variety of artists, musicians, traders, etc. who perform and sell their wares in town.

Sports history

In 2006, the Lumsden Arena became the site of the second edition of the

Western Women's Hockey League The Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) was a women's hockey league in Canada. The league was established in 2004, and consisted of teams in Canada (some former National Women's Hockey League teams) and one from the United States. The league offi ...

championship, between the Calgary Oval X-Treme and the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League). They play in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, a ...

. The town frequently hosts games for the

Saskatchewan Prairie Ice The Saskatchewan Prairie Ice were a professional women's ice hockey team in the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL). The team played its home games in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Canada. History After playing exhibition games throughout Saskatch ...

, now of the

. The Lumsden Monarchs are a senior men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team that was a founding member of the Highway Hockey League in central Saskatchewan in 1965.

Notable people

* Illingworth Kerr - Artist (20 August 1905 – 6 January 1989) *

Edith Fowke Edith Fowke, ''(née'' Margaret Fulton; 30 April 1913 Lumsden, Saskatchewan – 28 Mar 1996 Toronto) was a Canadian folklorist.Nygaard King, Betty and Ruth Pincoe. Fowke was educated at the University of Saskatchewan. She hosted the CBC Radio ...

- Canadian

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

(April 30, 1913 - 28 March 1996); born in Lumsden. *

Tanner Glass Tanner Glass (born November 29, 1983) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. Known as a physical player, he played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets, Pittsburgh Penguins ...

- NHL Hockey Player; graduated from Lumsden High School. *

Joe Fafard Joseph Fafard (September 2, 1942 – March 16, 2019) was a Canadian sculptor. Biography Joseph Fafard was a twelfth generation Canadian born in 1942 in Ste. Marthe, Saskatchewan, to French Canadians Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin. Fafard is ...

, died in Lumsden in 2019 * John Cullen Nugent, artist (1921-2014)

References

External links

* {{Coord, 50.6463, N, 104.8676, W, display=title, type:city_region:CA_source:GNS-enwiki Towns in Saskatchewan Lumsden No. 189, Saskatchewan Division No. 6, Saskatchewan