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Regina
KNOWLEDGE OF Regina
Regina was founded in 1882 when the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed a transcontinental railroad line through the region. The Dominion Lands Act encouraged homesteaders to come to the area where they could purchase 160 acres (647,000 m²) of land for $10. The city was originally known as the "Pile of Bones", because of the large amounts of buffalo bones in the area.
The hamlet of Pile of Bones was renamed in 1882 as Regina (Latin for queen) by Princess Louise, the wife of Canada's Governor General, in honour of her mother Queen Victoria, the British monarch at the time. Reginans commonly refer to Regina as the "Queen City". (Alternative names considered for the town were "Leopold" (for a son of Queen Victoria), "Wascana" and "Assiniboia", the latter two being Cree words.)
Because of its location on the new transcontinental railroad, Regina was chosen in 1883 as the new capital of the Northwest Territories, replacing Battleford. Regina remained the territorial capital until 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province.
On December 1, 1883, Regina was officially declared a town. The town's first mayor, David Scott, was elected on January 10, 1884.
In one of the sombre notes of the city's history, Louis Riel was brought to Regina after his troops were defeated by government forces in the North-West Rebellion in the spring of 1885. Riel was found guilty of treason and hanged on November 16, 1885. The trial was re-enacted each summer by local actors in the Trial of Louis Riel for many years. This play, based on the writings of author John Coulter, was not presented in 2004, but was revived for 2005.
From 1892 to 1920, Regina was the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police, and it is now headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Northwest Region and home of the RCMP Training Academy. An RCMP National Heritage Centre is scheduled to open in 2007.
Regina grew slowly for the first 20 years of its existence. With a population of more than 3,000, Regina was incorporated as a city on June 19, 1903, with Jacob W. Smith serving as the first mayor.
After Saskatchewan became a province on September 1, 1905, Regina was officially decreed the capital on May 23, 1906. In 1908 the first city hall was completed on the current site of the federal government building in downtown Regina while work commenced on constructing the province's legislative buildings beside Wascana Lake.
The years between 1903 and 1913 saw the city grow tenfold. Not only was the federal government's immigration policy finally hitting its stride and attracting large numbers of settlers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from the British Isles, from eastern Canada and the U.S., but adjustments to railway tariffs made the city more attractive as a distribution centre for farm machinery and other supplies needed by the settlers. The population growth set off a frenzied building boom that gave the city many handsome public and private buildings that are still standing. These include its two main hospitals, the Canada Life Building, Regina College (which became the University of Regina), Holy Rosary Cathedral, Knox-Metropolitan United Church, First Baptist Church (although the then-Metropolitan Methodist Church and Knox Presbyterian Church as well as First Baptist) were destroyed in the 1912 "Regina Cyclone" and rebuilt) and the stately provincial Legislative Building.
The hamlet of Pile of Bones was renamed in 1882 as Regina (Latin for queen) by Princess Louise, the wife of Canada's Governor General, in honour of her mother Queen Victoria, the British monarch at the time. Reginans commonly refer to Regina as the "Queen City". (Alternative names considered for the town were "Leopold" (for a son of Queen Victoria), "Wascana" and "Assiniboia", the latter two being Cree words.)
Because of its location on the new transcontinental railroad, Regina was chosen in 1883 as the new capital of the Northwest Territories, replacing Battleford. Regina remained the territorial capital until 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province.
On December 1, 1883, Regina was officially declared a town. The town's first mayor, David Scott, was elected on January 10, 1884.
In one of the sombre notes of the city's history, Louis Riel was brought to Regina after his troops were defeated by government forces in the North-West Rebellion in the spring of 1885. Riel was found guilty of treason and hanged on November 16, 1885. The trial was re-enacted each summer by local actors in the Trial of Louis Riel for many years. This play, based on the writings of author John Coulter, was not presented in 2004, but was revived for 2005.
From 1892 to 1920, Regina was the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police, and it is now headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Northwest Region and home of the RCMP Training Academy. An RCMP National Heritage Centre is scheduled to open in 2007.
Regina grew slowly for the first 20 years of its existence. With a population of more than 3,000, Regina was incorporated as a city on June 19, 1903, with Jacob W. Smith serving as the first mayor.
After Saskatchewan became a province on September 1, 1905, Regina was officially decreed the capital on May 23, 1906. In 1908 the first city hall was completed on the current site of the federal government building in downtown Regina while work commenced on constructing the province's legislative buildings beside Wascana Lake.
The years between 1903 and 1913 saw the city grow tenfold. Not only was the federal government's immigration policy finally hitting its stride and attracting large numbers of settlers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from the British Isles, from eastern Canada and the U.S., but adjustments to railway tariffs made the city more attractive as a distribution centre for farm machinery and other supplies needed by the settlers. The population growth set off a frenzied building boom that gave the city many handsome public and private buildings that are still standing. These include its two main hospitals, the Canada Life Building, Regina College (which became the University of Regina), Holy Rosary Cathedral, Knox-Metropolitan United Church, First Baptist Church (although the then-Metropolitan Methodist Church and Knox Presbyterian Church as well as First Baptist) were destroyed in the 1912 "Regina Cyclone" and rebuilt) and the stately provincial Legislative Building.
Chapi