Hague

Town, pop 711, located approximately 45 km NE of Saskatoon and 95 km SW of Prince Albert on Hwy 11. The Hague Ferry crosses the South Saskatchewan River 12 km due east of the town. Hague is situated on the rail line which was completed by the Qu’Appelle, Long Lake & Saskatchewan Railway in 1890, linking Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert; and the community derives its name from a railway engineer who worked on the line. In the mid-1890s, large numbers of Mennonite settlers began arriving in the district. The Hague post office was established in 1896, and by 1903 the small agricultural community had grown large enough to gain village status. In 1905-06, a future prime minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker, attended school in Hague, as his father had been employed to teach at the village’s one-room school. The population of the community at the time was approaching 300, and its numbers remained roughly around this level until after World War II, at which time the community experienced another period of growth, reaching over 400 by the mid-1960s. In the mid-1970s, a housing boom was spurred by people who worked in Saskatoon but wanted to live in a smaller community. While residents benefit from easy access to the employment opportunities, services, and amenities that Saskatoon has to offer, the town maintains a varied business community and the area economy is still agriculturally based. A major attraction in the community is the Saskatchewan River Valley Museum: located on a three-acre site, it houses over 3,000 artifacts and includes a number of heritage buildings, among them a rare Mennonite house-barn dating to 1908. Additionally, Hague is home to one of the few existing railroad water towers remaining in Saskatchewan.

David McLennan