Description of Historic Place

St. Catherine’s Anglican Cemetery is a Municipal Heritage Property located in the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No. 461, approximately seven kilometres west of the City of Prince Albert along Highway 302. Occupying a wooded knoll, the property features an active cemetery, dating from 1877.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of St. Catherine’s Anglican Cemetery resides in its association with early English Métis settlers in the Prince Albert area. The English Métis communities originated in the 1860s with the founding of the Isbister Settlement immediately west of the present city of Prince Albert. The community was named for James Isbister, an English Métis who freighted for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Carlton in the 1850s, but had settled in this area by 1860. The Isbister Settlement became the nucleus for other English Métis who migrated from the Red River Settlement area of Manitoba following the Riel resistance of 1869-70. St. Catherine’s Anglican Church, which occupied two separate buildings on this property between 1877 and 1988, became a hub of activity in the community and is commemorated by a cairn featuring the remains of the original bell. The associated cemetery serves as the final resting place of many of the early Isbister Settlement pioneers.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No. 461 Bylaw No. 4 of 2007.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of St. Catherine’s Anglican Cemetery lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the cemetery’s association with the early settlers, including the rows of grave markers, the stone cairn with brass plaque and the remains of the original church bell.