Saskatoon Island Provincial Park

Saskatoon Island Provincial Park is a provincial park located in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located 20km west of Grande Prairie in the Peace River Country, on the southern shore of Saskatoon Lake.HistoryThe park takes its name form a large island that used to be in the middle of the lake, where Cree natives used to pick saskatoon berries to use in pemmican. The island merged to the adjacent plains when the water level dropped in 1919, and the lake was divided in two sections.A settlement was established on the north side of the lake. The community of Lake Saskatoon was incorporated as a village in 1912. It was eventually abandoned after 1924, when the Grande Prairie-Grande Cache Railway missed the settlement by 9km when it was constructed on a more southern route through Wembley instead.A provincial park was created on the spit of land dividing the two parts of the lake. It was established on November 21, 1932.The area was declared a Federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary in 1948.ConservationThe park is a federal migratory bird sanctuary as part of the Grande Prairie Important Bird Area, hosting the threatened trumpeter swan.