La Ronge

La Ronge is the largest community in Northern Saskatchewan with over 3500 people residing in the town itself and about 2000 people on the adjacent First Nations lands of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and some 1000 people residing in the bordering settlement of Air Ronge.

This dynamic and rapidly evolving community has a history and prehistory that encompasses the trials, triumphs and tribulations of the Cree speaking first peoples who have lived here for uncounted generations. The community has also born the mark and seen the passage of the explorers and traders of legend such as McKenzie and Pond. La Ronge is situated on the southwest shore of the lake that gives it its name, a lake that is a major tributary to the Churchill River system. Historically La Ronge has been a travellerÕs crossroads, a trading outpost, a missionary settlement, a fishery center and a tourist Mecca.

The Aboriginal forbearers have left their legacy in and on the people of La Ronge and many other northern centers, while the early trappers, traders and explorers have had their names attached to the geography of many of the locales and also in some number to the surnames of many of the present day population. The pride in the history, heritage, culture and traditions of the people runs deep in this community and its residentÕs industriousness bodes well for its future.

La Ronge is a service center for almost all of northern Saskatchewan, but its origins were somewhat more humble. Originally it was just a very large lake that was blessed with the abundance of nature by way of its onetime magnificent fishery and wildlife reserves. First nations peoples had camped on the spot where La Ronge has risen many hundreds of years ago; they fished the waters and harvested the game of the thick boreal forest of the surrounding region and realized the blessings that their grandfathers and grandmothers knew.

When the first European trader/explorers reached the area they learned from the locals an in-depth awareness of the natural resources and the geography of the region. They also would have seen that this was a country that had long been a center of "Civilization", "Culture", and "Traditions" as indicated by the Pictographs that dotted the shorelines of the adjoining Churchill River as well as numerous lakeshore outcroppings.

La Ronge Links

Northern Affairs

Virtual Saskatchewan

La Ronge History

The canoe, the Trappe

Saskatchewan Map

Lac La Ronge, Pelican Narrows

KCDC

La Ronge Information

La Ronge Homepage

Entrepreneurship

Cameco Corporation