Ponteix: The town of Ponteix, a francophone community (54% French) of approximately 600 people, is located in southwest Saskatchewan, south of Swift Current, 78 kms west of Assiniboia. It's about one hour from the US border on Highway #13 which is part of the Red Coat Trail. [The Red Coat Trail roughly follows the 1874 route that the North West Mounted Police took when they first marched west. ]

The town was founded by Father Royer, a parish priest from Ponteix in the province of Auvergne, France. He had come to Canada to establish a parish dedicated to Notre-Dame d'Auvergne (our Lady of Auvergne). In 1908, he established the parish and the hamlet by the same name along the north side of Notukeu Creek. When the CP Railway track was subsequently laid south of the creek, the townsite was moved in 1913 to the present site south of the railway line and renamed Ponteix, after Father Royer's former parish in France.

More recently, the name Auvergne has been resurrected to identify rural municipality no. 76 which is headquartered in Ponteix.

Town web site: http://www.townofponteix.com/Pages/Attractions.html

Here's the link to an excellent article about Ponteix and its church in the Western Catholic Reporter, written by Ted Fitzgerald: http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/tedfitzgerald/2003/fitzgerald090803.shtml

Those of you who are curious about the apparent overabundance of "faith' in Saskatchewan, the following centennial article titled "100 years of faith - a centennial story" may be of interest: http://www.sask2005.ca/stories/full_story.asp?ID=262