Highway 641 begins near Rouleau and extends north 22.1 kilometres (13.7 mi) to the Trans-Canada Highway intersection. This area is part of the Regina Plain landscape area of the Moist Mixed Grasslandecoregion featuring mainly cereal crops in the dark brown soils.[2] At km 24.6, Highway 641 enters the village Pense.[3] At km 25.4, it intersects Highway 730. Highway 730 connects to Regina east of this intersection. Lumsden is located at the km 55.9 intersection with Highway 11 in the Qu'Appelle Valley.[4]
The town of Lumsden features the Lumsden Museum which is home to several restored heritage buildings.[5][6] The Lumsden Trans Canada Trail Committee helped establish 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the Trans Canada Trail. The trail has been groomed for walking, hiking, cycling, skiing, horseback riding, canoeing, and snowmobiling.[7]Craven, the home of the Craven Country Jamboree, is located at the Highway 99 and Highway 20 junctions. Highway 641 continues north for 11.5 kilometres (7.1 mi) and then turns east 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) before again continuing northerly. This final stretch of the highway is part of the Strasbourg Plain landscape area of the Moist Mixed Grasslandecoregion featuring small trembling aspen bluffs around the occasional slough.[2]Earl Grey is located at the intersection with Highway 22. There are no localities located at the intersection with the secondary Highway 731. Last Mountain House Provincial Park protects the heritage site of the Hudson's Bay Company post Last Mountain House established in 1869.[8] The terminus of Highway 641 is at the Highway 15 intersection at Semans.[1]
History
Between 1897 and 1909, municipal administration affairs were handled by Local Improvement District (LID) Number 165. The LID changed its boundaries on 13 December 1909, and on 1 January 1913, the LID was renamed Pense No. 160. During the 1940s work was undertaken on paving roadways, a man could earn 35 cents an hour or $6.53 today a man and two horses could be employed at a rate of 65 cents an hour $12.12 today, a horse drawn drag would earn 37.5 cents an hour $6.99 today, and if a farmer owned a tractor, a tractor drawn drag could earn as much as 50 cents per hour $9.32 today.[9][4][10][11][12][13]
The Saskatchewan Highway Act was established in 1922, in compliance with the 1919 Canadian Highway Act. At the initial stages of the Saskatchewan Highway Act, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) of provincial highways were gravel and the rest were earth roads. The road allowances were laid out as a part of the Dominion Land Survey system for homesteading.[14][15] Travel along the Provincial Highway 641 before the 1940s would have been travelling on the "square" following the township road allowances, barbed wire fencing and the Canadian Northern rail line. As the surveyed township roads were the easiest to travel, the first highway was designed on 90-degree, right-angle corners as the distance traversed the prairie along range roads and township roads.[16][17]
There is a historical monument erected along the highway which states that the early railway was established along the east side of the Last Mountain Lake (Long Lake) in 1907, and constructed on the west side in 1911. The monument documents as well the Lady of the Lake sternwheeler which was used on Long Lake. Local historians clarify that the rail came to the east of the Lake in 1911, and to the west in 1912. The Lady of the Lake began as a sternwheeler, but was modified to a screw propeller. Also on the Lake the S.S. Qu'Appelle, a luxurious steamer, towed a barge across the lake.[18]
Lumsden was initially served by the Canadian National Railway (CNR), however the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was built through Craven in 1910. The new line brought freight to Lumsden infrequently and the elevator was torn down in 1927, and the CNR track removed the next year. The highway went through where the CNR bridge had been built.[18] Highway 20 is marked on an early 1926 and 1955 maps, but highway 641 is unmarked – showing up as surveyed township and range roads only.[19][20]
^ abMicrosoft Streets and Tips (Map) (2004 ed.). Microsoft Corp. § Route Planner.
^ abKai-iu Fung; Bill Barry; Wilson, Michael, eds. (1999). "Ecoregions". Atlas of Saskatchewan Celebrating the Millennium (Millennium ed.). Saskatchewan: University of Saskatchewan. pp. 160–163. ISBN0-88880-387-7.
^"A History of the Canadian Dollar". Le Site De Justiceplus - The Justiceplus Site. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008. Rationale to use US currency conversion template. $10 Canadian was equivalent to US$10 gold eagle 1851-1867. 1879-1914 the US and Canadian dollar traded again at par.
^"The Canadian Dollar under the Gold Standard (1854-1914)"(PDF). Bank of Canada. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 February 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2008. Rationale to use US currency conversion template. Bank of Canada notes that from 1854-1914 the US and Canadian dollar traded at par.
^"History". Rural Municipality of Pense 160. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 September 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
^Coupland, R.T. (1969). "Transportation in Saskatchewan". In J.H. Richards; K.I. Fung (eds.). Atlas of Saskatchewan. J.S. Rowe. Saskatoon, SK, CA: University of Saskatchewan. p. 174.
^Adamson, J (14 October 2003). "Canadian maps 1926 Highway Map". Department of Highways. Canadian Maps Online Digitization Project. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
^Adamson, J (14 October 2003). "Canadian maps 1925 Waghorn's Guide". Department of Highways. Canadian Maps Online Digitization Project. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
^Adamson, J (14 October 2003). "Canadian maps 1926 Highway Map". Department of Highways. Canadian Maps Online Digitization Project. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
^"The Atlas of Canada - Major Roads, 1955". Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, Geomatics Canada. Government of Canada. 19 July 2004. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
^Microsoft Streets and Tips (Map) (2004 ed.). Microsoft Corporation Redmond Washington.
