Fort San, Saskatchewan

Fort San, Saskatchewan
Resort Village
Fort San looking towards Fort Qu'Appelle, 1920s
Fort San, Saskatchewan
Coordinates: 50°48′09″N 103°49′37″W / 50.80250°N 103.82694°W / 50.80250; -103.82694Coordinates: 50°48′09″N 103°49′37″W / 50.80250°N 103.82694°W / 50.80250; -103.82694
Country	Canada
Province	Saskatchewan
Region	Central
Census division	9
Rural Municipality	North Qu'Appelle
Established	1917
Government
• Governing body	Fort San Village Council
• Mayor	Jim Harding
•	Beverly Van der Breggen
Area
• Total	2.90 km2 (1.12 sq mi)
Population (2006)
• Total	215
• Density	74.2/km2 (192/sq mi)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
Postal code	S0K 4P0
Area code(s)	306
Highways	Highway 56

Fort San is a former sanatorium and then summer arts camp, now a resort village, surrounded by the rural municipality of North Qu'Appelle No. 187, Saskatchewan, Canada. The village is located approximately 77 km northeast of Regina and 3 km west of Fort Qu'Appelle. With the closure of the sanatorium the area was repurposed originally as a venue to house the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts and later as a resort village housing the Echo Valley Conference Centre.

Fort San was opened in 1917 during a time when tuberculosis infections were increasing, and was built to house 358 patients. It was a self-sufficient institution with vegetable gardens, livestock, a power house, and an extensive library for patients provided by World War I veterans. Fort San was a medical purgatory where hundreds died and thousands suffered. Isolation, loneliness and pain were a way of life for its citizens; some of whom lost years of their lives, if not life itself.

After tuberculosis became less of a threat in the early 1960s, the sanatorium building's purpose was changed to house the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts in 1967. For thirty years, thousands of young people received summer tuition in dance, music, visual art, writing and theatre. Through the 1970s the facilities were expanded and improved to support the school over its 30 years. "Over 1,200 children and adults attended the seven-week program at the School during the summer of 1968." The school was closed in 1991 due to lack of funding. The Sage Hill Writing Experience is one of the spin-offs of the school that continued to operate using a variety of venues around the province. Existing facilities were expanded and improved throughout the 1970s as the popularity of the School increased.

Fort San was run as a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Camp named HMCS Qu'Appelle Cadet Summer Training Centre during the summers of the nineties to 2004. The programs offered were:

One of the operating rooms was even converted to a 4 bunk barrack room and the cadets taking sailing or general training generally slept directly over the morgue.

It is an urban legend that Fort San is haunted by patients who died there in its early years. Several authors have documented different accounts of strange occurrences which transpired in the time since it was retired as a sanatorium.