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Northern Village of Cumberland House hosting 250th anniversary celebrations
Blink and you might miss it, but the small Northern Village of Cumberland House is huge on history. In fact, it’s the oldest community in Saskatchewan and will be marking its 250th anniversary with celebrations starting Sunday, August 11.
The community, located 163 kilometres northeast of Nipawin at the end of Hwy 123, is home to less than 600 people today, but during the fur trade era, the community served as a key supply depot. According to Tourism Saskatchewan it was also a transportation hub as waterways led north and northwest to the fur-rich Churchill and Athabasca regions, east to Hudson Bay and southwest onto the plains. Today, the community retains a small business core. Adjacent to it is the Cumberland House Cree Nation Reserve which is part of the original Cumberland House settlement.
Cumberland House was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1924.
“There was the Hudson Bay Company, a French company and we had fur traders from all over the place – even as far as the Northwest Territories,” said Denise McKenzie, who is part of the planning committee for the celebrations.