Regina, Saskatchewan - Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Regina

Saskatchewan

Provincial Capital

Regina, city, capital of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, second largest city in the province next to Saskatoon. The Latin word regina means "queen," and the city is sometimes called the Queen City of the Plains because of its location in the heart of Canada's prairie region. Regina has a severe, dry climate, with cold winters and short summers, but is very well suited to growing wheat. The average daily temperature range in July is 12° C (53° F) to 26° C (79° F); the average January range is -22° C (-8° F) to -11° C (12° F). The average yearly precipitation is 364 mm (14.3 in).

the new and the old

Regina's first growth period occurred after 1900, when large numbers of pioneer farmers moved onto the prairies. The city had more than 30,000 people in 1914 but did not experience rapid growth again until Canada's great period of economic expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1971 Regina's population had reached 140,000. The city has grown more slowly since then. In 1981 the population was 162,986 for the city proper and 173,226 for the metropolitan area; in 1996 it was 180,400 for the city and 193,652 for the metropolitan area.

a Regina bison

Southern Saskatchewan was once populated by great herds of bison (often called buffalo) and the indigenous nations who hunted them. By the 1800s these were mainly the Cree and Assiniboine nations. Wascana Creek, which gets its name from the Cree term for "bones" and was originally called Pile O' Bones Creek in English, was a favorite hunting area. The name came from the mounds of bones of slaughtered bison on the creek bank. According to the local story, the Cree built the mounds in the belief that the bison would not abandon the remains of their dead.

bells

In 1882, as the country's first transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, was being built across western Canada, the railway company laid out the site of a town near the Wascana Creek crossing. Almost immediately the Canadian government decided to move the headquarters of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to this new settlement, which was named Regina in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain. Regina became the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1883, was incorporated as a city in 1903, and was made the capital of Saskatchewan when the province was created in 1905. The headquarters of the police force were moved in 1920 to Ottawa, the nation's capital, but the force's training facility remained in Regina.

Photos of RCMP training facility

Photos of "Pigs in the City"

Regina has been associated with a number of important historical events. In 1885 Louis Riel, leader of the Northwest Rebellion, was tried for treason and executed there. In 1933 Canada's newly formed socialist party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), convened in Regina and issued the Regina Manifesto, a statement of rights for working-class Canadians.

bank

This was followed two years later by the Regina Riot of 1935, which erupted when police tried to arrest the leaders of a group of workers. Traveling through Regina on their way to Ottawa, the workers were protesting the government's failure to end unemployment during the Great Depression (the worldwide economic slump of the 1930s). In 1961 Saskatchewan's New Democratic Party, successor to the CCF, adopted the first provincial health plan, marking the beginning of state-funded health insurance in Canada.

Text from Microsoft Encarta