Lebret, Saskatchewan
| Lebret, Saskatchewan | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
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|
 Lebret, Saskatchewan
Lebret, Saskatchewan
|
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| Coordinates: 50°45′25.66″N 103°42′10.20″W / 50.7571278°N 103.7028333°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Saskatchewan |
| Region | Southwest Saskatchewan |
| Census division | 6 |
| Rural Municipality | North Qu'Appelle |
| Established | 1880 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ralph Blondeau |
| • Administrator | Caroline MacMurchy |
| • Governing body | Lebret Village Council |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.40 km2 (0.54 sq mi) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 207 |
| • Density | 154.1/km2 (399/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CST |
| Postal code | S0G 2Y0 |
| Area code(s) | 306 |
| Highways | Highway 56 |
| Waterways |
Katepwa Lake Mission Lake |
Lebret is a village situated on Mission Lake in the Qu'Appelle Valley in North Qu'Appelle Rural Municipality No. 187, Saskatchewan, Canada. The population was 203 at the 2006 Census. The village is located on Highway 56, about 70 km (43 mi) northeast of Regina. It was named after "the parish priest, Father Louis Lebret, who became the first postmaster of the community and, although he only held the position for a little more than six months, the office was named Lebret and the name became that of the community."
The site of Lebret first came to non-First Nations outside attention in 1814 when Abbé Provencher visited. A further such visit occurred when Abbé Picard from Pembina arrived in 1841 and wintered with John McDonald, previously of the North-West Company; the next record of visit is of Bishop Taché passing through in 1864 en route to Ile á la Crosse, returning with a party and staying in Fort Qu’Appelle and choosing the site which later became the village of Lebret for the Catholic mission, established the next year in 1866 as one of the earliest in what became the Province of Saskatchewan in 1905.
It “became the main centre of Catholicism for the Métis and First Nations people in the region and a base for Oblate priests who travelled the southern plains to points such as Wood Mountain and the Cypress Hills." The federal government financed the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School in Lebret. which started in 1884 and run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The first post office was opened in 1886, named Lebret which was given to the community. The Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions arrived in 1899 and founded Saint Gabriel’s Convent in 1906.
The village was incorporated in 1912 and the fieldstone Sacred Heart Church built in 1925. Churchgoing vastly waned among the Baby-Boom Generation to all but fundamentalist denominations beginning in the mid-1960s but full-house concerts were held in Sacred Heart Church by choirs of the nearby Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts in Fort San. This ceased when the Summer School closed in 1991 due to lack of funding.
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