La Ronge | |
|---|---|
Northern town[1] | |
 Island on Lac La Ronge | |
  La Ronge La Ronge (Canada) Show map of Canada | |
| Coordinates:55°06′N105°18′W / 55.100°N 105.300°W /55.100; -105.300 | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Saskatchewan |
| District | Northern Saskatchewan Administration District |
| Northern village[2] | 3 May 1905 |
| Industrial town[2] | 1965 |
| Town[2] | 1 November 1976 |
| Northern town[2] | 1 October 1983 |
| Government | |
| • MLACumberland | Doyle Vermette |
| • MPDesnethé—Missinippi —Churchill River | Gary Vidal |
| Area | |
| • Land | 16.40 km2 (6.33 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 8.57 km2 (3.31 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[3] | |
• Northern town[1] | 2,521 |
| • Density | 150.9/km2 (391/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 5,671 |
| • Urban density | 661.9/km2 (1,714/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (CST) |
| Postal code | S0J 1L0 |
| Highways | Highway 2,Highway 102 |
| Post office established | 1911 |
| Climate | Dfc |
| Website | Official website |
| [4][5][6] | |
La Ronge is anorthern town in theboreal forest ofSaskatchewan, Canada. The town is also the namesake of the largerLa Ronge population centre, the largest in northern Saskatchewan, comprising theNorthern Village ofAir Ronge, and the Kitsakie 156B and Lac La Ronge 156reserves of theLac La Ronge First Nation.
The town is located approximately 250 km (160 mi) north ofPrince Albert and lies on the western shore ofLac la Ronge, is adjacent toLac La Ronge Provincial Park, and is on the edge of theCanadian Shield.
The name "La Ronge" comes from the lake itself, although the actual origin of the name is uncertain. TheFrench verbronger translates as "to gnaw", with at least one explanation theorising that 17th- and 18th-centuryFrench fur traders referred to the lake asla ronge (literally,the chewed) due to the abundantbeaver population along the lake’s shoreline. Undoubtedly, many of the trees along the water’s edge would have been visibly chewed, or completely gnawed to the ground and taken away by therodents for theirdam construction.[7]
In 1782,[8] Swiss born fur traderJean-Étienne Waddens had a fur trade post on Lac La Ronge.[9] In March 1782, Waddens was fatally wounded in a quarrel with his associatePeter Pond.
La Ronge began in 1904 as a furtrading post and meeting place, but with the decline of hunting and the fur market, La Ronge has diversified into other areas. Many of theDene,Cree, and white trappers used La Ronge as their central service point. It incorporated as anorthern village on 3 May 1905.[2]
With the extension ofHighway 2 from Prince Albert in 1947, La Ronge became a major touristfishing area. Thehighway between La Ronge and Prince Albert expanded the community further in the 1970s after it was paved.
In the early 1950s and 1960s, themineral resources in the La Ronge area began to be explored and developed.
La Ronge's status changed from northern village to industrial town in 1965 and then to town on 1 November 1976 before finally becoming a northern town on 1 October 1983.[2]
In May 1999, the community of La Ronge was evacuated after a fire burned through the far north of the town. Thewildfire burned multiple houses before conditions pushed the fire away from the town and crews were able to extinguish it.
Once again in July 2015, La Ronge was threatened by dangerous forest fires that combined forcing approximately 7,000 people to evacuate from their homes. Many cabins and homes were burnt. The fire came within 2 km of La Ronge and burned completely around the La Ronge Airport making it difficult to fight the fire from air with smokey conditions and unreliable weather making the fight against the fires very difficult. In total there were over a hundred fires burning in Northern Saskatchewan at once which forced over 13,000 residents to flee their homes, resulting in the province's largest evacuation ever. The fires were caused by low precipitation in the winter and summer months and also high temperatures.[10]
La Ronge is surrounded by severalFirst Nations reserves, with the Northern Village of Air Ronge located just south of the community on Highway 2. With access to all other points north, east and west, and transportation linkage to the south, La Ronge is also the northern hub for the Saskatchewan provincial government.
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According to theKöppen–Geiger andTrewartha climate classification systems, La Ronge experiences a borderline(warm-summer) humid continental climate (KöppenDfb; TrewarthaDc)[11]—prior to the 1991–2020 normals, it experienced acontinental subarctic climate (KöppenDfc; TrewarthaEc).[12][13][14] Winters are long, dry and very cold while summer is short, warm and wetter. Precipitation is fairly low, with an annual average of 513.6 millimetres (20.22 in). The highest temperature ever recorded in La Ronge was 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) on 23 August 1929.[15] The coldest temperature ever recorded was −52.2 °C (−62.0 °F) on 15 February 1936.[16]
| Climate data forLa Ronge Airport, 1991–2020 temperature and precipitation, 1981–2010 rainfall and snowfall, extremes 1923–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12.5 (54.5) | 14.0 (57.2) | 17.5 (63.5) | 28.0 (82.4) | 33.2 (91.8) | 36.1 (97.0) | 35.6 (96.1) | 37.2 (99.0) | 34.4 (93.9) | 27.4 (81.3) | 18.0 (64.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 37.2 (99.0) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −13.3 (8.1) | −9.6 (14.7) | −1.9 (28.6) | 7.2 (45.0) | 15.0 (59.0) | 20.5 (68.9) | 23.5 (74.3) | 22.1 (71.8) | 15.6 (60.1) | 6.7 (44.1) | −3.6 (25.5) | −11.4 (11.5) | 5.9 (42.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −18.3 (−0.9) | −15.6 (3.9) | −8.4 (16.9) | 0.9 (33.6) | 8.3 (46.9) | 14.6 (58.3) | 17.6 (63.7) | 16.3 (61.3) | 10.2 (50.4) | 2.5 (36.5) | −7.5 (18.5) | −16.0 (3.2) | 0.4 (32.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −23.3 (−9.9) | −21.6 (−6.9) | −14.9 (5.2) | −5.4 (22.3) | 1.6 (34.9) | 8.6 (47.5) | 11.6 (52.9) | 10.4 (50.7) | 4.7 (40.5) | −1.7 (28.9) | −11.3 (11.7) | −20.5 (−4.9) | −5.1 (22.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −48.3 (−54.9) | −52.2 (−62.0) | −41.8 (−43.2) | −33.9 (−29.0) | −17.6 (0.3) | −3.3 (26.1) | 0.0 (32.0) | −3.4 (25.9) | −9.4 (15.1) | −20.9 (−5.6) | −37.6 (−35.7) | −48.9 (−56.0) | −52.2 (−62.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 22.3 (0.88) | 18.5 (0.73) | 25.0 (0.98) | 34.0 (1.34) | 40.9 (1.61) | 69.3 (2.73) | 89.1 (3.51) | 65.3 (2.57) | 57.3 (2.26) | 41.3 (1.63) | 26.9 (1.06) | 23.6 (0.93) | 513.5 (20.23) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 0.2 (0.01) | 0.3 (0.01) | 1.6 (0.06) | 16.9 (0.67) | 38.6 (1.52) | 66.5 (2.62) | 80.5 (3.17) | 60.6 (2.39) | 55.1 (2.17) | 20.7 (0.81) | 2.4 (0.09) | 0.3 (0.01) | 343.6 (13.53) |
| Average snowfall cm (inches) | 20.4 (8.0) | 17.3 (6.8) | 21.0 (8.3) | 19.2 (7.6) | 5.2 (2.0) | 0.1 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.9 (0.4) | 16.7 (6.6) | 28.3 (11.1) | 25.0 (9.8) | 154.1 (60.7) |
| Source 1: Environment and Climate Change Canada[11] (1991−2020 temperature and precipitation normals) | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Environment Canada[12][13][14] (1981−2010 rainfall and snowfall normals, and some extremes) | |||||||||||||
In the2021 Census of Population conducted byStatistics Canada, La Ronge had a population of2,521 living in915 of its1,034 total private dwellings, a change of-6.2% from its 2016 population of2,688. With a land area of 16.71 km2 (6.45 sq mi), it had a population density of150.9/km2 (390.7/sq mi) in 2021.[17]
| 2021 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,521 (-6.2% from 2016) | 2,743[18] (0.7% from 2006) |
| Land area | 16.71 km2 (6.45 sq mi) | 11.86 km2 (4.58 sq mi) |
| Population density | 150.9/km2 (391/sq mi) | 231.3/km2 (599/sq mi) |
| Median age | 31.0 (M: 30.0, F: 32.0) | 30.2 (M: 30.1, F: 30.3) |
| Private dwellings | 1,034 (total) 915 (occupied) | 1,170[18] (total) |
| Median household income | $93,000 |
The La Ronge population centre, thefourteenth largest population centre in the province,[21] comprises four adjoiningcensus subdivisions including the Northern Town of La Ronge, the Northern Village of Air Ronge and the Kitsakie 156B and Lac La Ronge 156 Indian reserves of the Lac La Ronge First Nation.[22]
In the 2016 Census, Statistics Canada reported that the La Ronge population centre had a population of 5,671 living in 1,704 of its 1,927 total dwellings, a +6.6% change from its 2011 population of 5,318.[23] With a land area of 8.57 km2 (3.31 sq mi), it had a population density of661.7/km2 (1,713.9/sq mi) in 2016.
The following is a population breakdown of the La Ronge population centre by census subdivision.
| Census subdivision[22] | 2016 population | 2011 population[24] | 2006 population[24] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Ronge | 1,106 | 1,043 | 1,032 |
| Kitsakie 156B | 605 | 644 | 671 |
| La Ronge | 2,688 | 2,304 | 2,725 |
| Lac La Ronge 156 | 2,017 | 1,914 | 1,534 |
| Total La Ronge population centre | 6,416 | 5,905 | 5,962 |
Several mining companies, government agencies, and airlines now keep offices in La Ronge, and the local Chamber of Commerce has many other retail and service businesses amongst its members.
La Ronge Wild Rice Corporation processes freshly harvested wild rice (in August to October) from Northern Saskatchewan farmers.
Tourism also brings in many of people to the La Ronge area. In the summer time, many people visit the Lac La Ronge Provincial Park which is Saskatchewan's largest Provincial Park.
The community is also home to theLa Ronge Ice Wolvesice hockey team of theSaskatchewan Junior Hockey League, La Ronge minor hockey association and the La Ronge Crushers men's hockey league and the La Ronge women's hockey league. La Ronge also has a minor baseball program with many teams and age groups.
La Ronge is home to an 8 team Ladies Slopitch League - JRMCC Ladies Slopitch (slow-pitch softball). The Churchill Community High School and the Senator Myles Venne High School both have many sports programs and partake in the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association. There are many other sports available in the community includingvolleyball,broomball,curling and a women's hockey program.
In 2009, La Ronge elected 21-year-old councillor Thomas Sierzycki as its mayor. This established La Ronge as having one of the youngest mayors in Canada. Sierzycki stayed in office for two terms up until October 2016 when he decided not to run for a third term after a failed bid to land himself a seat as a Saskatchewan MLA with the Saskatchewan Party in the April 2016 election.
There are two high schools and three elementary schools in La Ronge and Air Ronge. High schools includeChurchill Community High School and/ Senator Myles Venne High School. Elementary schools in La Ronge and Air Ronge include Pre-cam Community School, Gordon Denny Community School, and Bells Point Elementary School.[citation needed]
Northlands College maintains its main campus in La Ronge and took over the Nortep / Norpac program after the Saskatchewan provincial government cut funding to the program in March 2017.[citation needed]
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La Ronge is connected to southern Saskatchewan by Highway 2, which continues north as Highway 102. La Ronge is served by theLa Ronge (Barber Field) Airport and theLa Ronge Water Aerodrome.
The Town of La Ronge is located on the west shore of Lac La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan. Origin of the name is uncertain but it is likely associated with the beaver and the French verb ronger ("to gnaw"). Fur traders such as the Frobishers and Peter Pond frequented this site in the 1770s, and HBC posts operated intermittently in the area into this century.
Places adjacent to La Ronge | |
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| International | |
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| National | |
