Green Lake began as a fur trade post. The North West Company set up a wintering post on the lake in 1782 and made it permanent in 1793. The Hudson's Bay Company arrived in 1810, and the two rivals traded, and sometimes clashed, across the water until they merged in 1821. The post, which linked many overland trails with the Churchill River, closed for a few years, reopened in 1831, and kept operating until 1973. During the North-West Rebellion in 1885, Cree from Loon Lake looted the Hudson's Bay post, though its factor James Sinclair had already sent off powder, rifles and stock by boat.
By the mid 19th century missionaries had brought the Roman Catholic Church to Green Lake, and the community built a new church in 1901. A telegraph service, a post office and a trail to Meadow Lake came in 1900. After Treaty 6 was signed in 1876, settlers began moving into the area.
In 1939 the government launched the Green Lake Metis Rehabilitation Program, which brought southern Métis to the community. They struggled to adapt and left within a year. The province set up Central Farm, an outpost hospital run by the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary opened in 1940, and a sawmill started in the 1940s. Highway 155 and an RCMP detachment followed, and Highway 55 to Meadow Lake was completed in 1975–76.
Green Lake was incorporated as a northern village in 1983. The community later took over Central Farm and Silver Lake Farm, which it runs as community pasture. Fishing, tourism and farming are its main industries today.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Green Lake, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.