Saskatoon

Saskatoon (2011 pop: 222,189 (city) 260,600 (census metropolitan area)) is located in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Saskatoon is the most populous city in the province of Saskatchewan, and has been since the mid-1980s when it surpassed the provincial capital of Regina. Residents of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians.

The first permanent settlement (originally named Saskatoon, but later renamed Nutana) was founded in 1883 by John Lake, leader of the Temperance Colonization Society. A Methodist minister and entrepreneur from Toronto, he and his followers obtained land on the east bank of the river to set up a community where the sale and consumption of alcohol was banned, as they believed it to be the source of many social ills. However, the planned temperance colony failed: the group was not granted a contiguous block of land, the settlement was isolated and lacked railway and reliable waterway transportation, and fears of native hostility during the 1885 North-West Rebellion dampened the enthusiasm for settlement.

The first railway arrived in 1891, and another settlement on the west bank of the river emerged and displaced the east bank as the commercial hub. The new settlement incorporated as the village of Saskatoon in 1901. Stripped of its original name, the east bank renamed itself Nutana and incorporated as a town in 1903, as had Saskatoon a few months earlier. Another west side village, Riversdale, appeared in 1905. The three communities merged to form the City of Saskatoon on July 1, 1906.

The city is home to the University of Saskatchewan, established in 1907 as the province's first publicly-funded post-secondary educational institution. It is a major employer in the city and is home to numerous research and development programs in the fields of agriculture, medicine, science and technology.

The name "Saskatoon" comes from the Cree inanimate noun "misâskwatômina," which refers to a sweet, violet-coloured berry that grows in the area. Saskatoon is often called the "City of Bridges" for its seven river crossings. It is also occasionally referred to as "The Paris of the Prairies", a line from the song "Wheat Kings" by the Tragically Hip, a Canadian band.

A long-time nickname for Saskatoon is "Hub City", while the name is also commonly abbreviated "S'toon". Following the release of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, the city became popularly known as "'Toontown", after a similarly named location in the film, although the nickname "'Toontown" had been in use in Saskatoon prior to the film's release. Another, less commonly used nickname is "POW City". POW stands for Potash, Oil, and Wheat.
www.saskatoon.ca