Qu'Appelle Valley

The Qu'Appelle Valley runs about four hundred and thirty kilometres across southern Saskatchewan, up to two kilometres wide and a hundred metres deep, and the modest river winding along the bottom did not cut it: it was carved by torrents of glacial meltwater draining the retreating ice sheet, leaving a valley that is now far larger than its stream. A chain of lakes fills the floor. The name translates a Cree story of a voice calling across the water and being answered by an echo, and Pauline Johnson wrote a well-known poem on it. Fort Qu'Appelle, Katepwa and the Fishing Lakes are the main settlements.

History

The North West Company opened a fur post at Fort Espérance on the lower river in 1787, and after it was abandoned in 1819 the Hudson's Bay Company set up Fort Qu'Appelle in 1852, beside today's town of that name. The name comes from a Cree legend of a spirit travelling the valley: in 1804 the trader Daniel Harmon was told that people heard a voice calling kâ-têpwêt?, what is calling?, and answered it, hearing the echo come back, and the poet Pauline Johnson later retold it as the story of a young man who heard his bride call his name at the moment of her death (Wikipedia, Qu'Appelle River).

Highlights

• The oversized valley - a meltwater channel far bigger than its river.
• The lake chain - Pasqua, Echo, Mission and Katepwa on the valley floor.
• The valley rim - a sudden drop from flat prairie into the trench.
• The Cree name story - the calling voice legend the valley carries.

When to go

May to September for the lakes and beaches; autumn colour in the valley aspen is good. Winter brings ice fishing. The valley shelters and warms compared with the plain above.

Things to know

Lake water quality varies and algae blooms close beaches in some summers. The valley communities are small and seasonal. Access roads down the sides are steep.

Nearby

Regina lies south; Moose Jaw is southwest.

Key facts