Pinehouse, Saskatchewan

Pinehouse
Northern village
Location of Pinehouse on a NASA image of Pinehouse Lake
Pinehouse Location of Pinehouse in Saskatchewan
Coordinates: 55°30′49″N 106°35′55″W / 55.51361°N 106.59861°W / 55.51361; -106.59861
Country	Canada
Province	Saskatchewan
Government
• Mayor	Mike Natomagan
• MLA Athabasca	Buckley Belanger
• MP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River	Rob Clarke
Area
• Land	6.84 km2 (2.64 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	978
• Density	142.9/km2 (370/sq mi)
Time zone	Central Standard Time (UTC−6)
Postal code	S0J 2B0
Highways	Hwy 914
Post office established	1949

Pinehouse is a northern village located in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan on the western shore of Pinehouse Lake within the Canadian Shield.

Travelling by road from Pinehouse, the Key Lake mine is 223 km (138 miles) north, Prince Albert is 346 km (215 miles) south, La Ronge is 214 km (133 miles) east and Beauval, the closest community, is 107 km (67 miles) west. Highway 914 passes through the community.

There were 978 residents in 2011 down 9.1% since the 2006 Canada Census. Cree was the mother tongue of 630 of the residents in 2011. The mayor of this predominantly Métis settlement is Mike Natomagan.

There was a North West Company post and a rival post near the mouth of the Tippo River called Lac des Serpents (Lake of Serpents or Snake Lake) in 1786.

The Hudson's Bay Company had a post at the north end of Pinehouse Lake called the Souris River Post. It was located about 2 km west of the mouth of the Belanger River once known as the Souris River. Most of the residents of this settlement which numbered about 100 people in the 1920s and 1930s eventually moved to Pinehouse. The Souris River Post near Sandfly Lake operated from 1875 to 1939. The Census of 1906 called this settlement then numbering 73 people Souris River on the Churchill.

Missionaries first visited the Dene population of Pinehouse Lake in 1899. A smallpox epidemic killed around half of the population of the area in 1900-1901. Some survivors moved up the Churchill River towards Patuanak and downriver to Stanley Mission further depleting the area population.