Country Canada Census division 7 Post office Founded N/A Area 149 ha Area code 306 | Region Central Rural Municipality Maple Bush Village Incorporated N/A Province Saskatchewan | |
Mistusinne is a resort village in Maple Bush Rural Municipality No. 224, Saskatchewan, Canada. The population was 56 at the 2006 Census. The village's name is derived from the Plains Cree word mistasiniy (meaning "big stone") which refers to a massive stone that resembled a sleeping bison that once rested in the Qu'Appelle Valley before Lake Diefenbaker was built. Douglas Provincial Park extends from the community to the Qu'Appelle River Dam and is 8 km south of the village of Elbow on highway 19. The community serves as a summer retreat that contains many cabins and a golf course, with a view of Lake Diefenbaker. Part of the golf course along the shore had to be rebuilt when waters of Lake Diefenbaker rose in 1998 and collapsed the shoreline.
Map of Mistusinne, SK, Canada
The town's namesake, the boulder Mistusinne (also spelled Mistaseni), was a 400-ton glacial erratic and a sacred gathering place for the Cree and Assiniboine peoples. During the South Saskatchewan River Dam Project, it was in the flood path to the new reservoir of Lake Diefenbaker. In 1966, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration had the rock blasted apart with explosives, despite efforts by groups to save it. Pieces of the rock were used in monuments to Chief Poundmaker and a memorial to the boulder itself in Elbow. Large fragments were located under the waters of the lake in 2014.