KAMSACK

town, eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Whitesand rivers, just west of the Manitoba border, 167 miles (268 km) northeast of Regina. Trading posts had existed in the locality since the establishment of Grant's House (Fort-Rivire Tremblante) in 1793. Homesteaders (including the Dukhobors, who fled religious persecution in Russia) arrived after 1899. The town, named about 1888 for a local Indian mail carrier, was reached by the main line of the Canadian National Railway in 1903. Severe damage by a tornado in 1944 was followed by major rebuilding. Kamsack is a service centre for a mixed-farming, lumbering, and stock-raising area. Its industries include oil refining and dairying. The meeting house (1917) of Peter Verigin, the celebrated leader of the Dukhobors, survives in the village of Verigin, situated immediately to the west. Several Indian reservations and Duck Mountain Provincial Park are located nearby. Inc. village, 1905; town, 1911. Pop. (1991) 2,323.