open to experimentation, and 'the Counts' met the challenge in a highly innovative manner. The lasting contribution of the French Counts to the social fabric of Saskatchewan 'The Counts' left behind them much more than stories of their various enterprises, of their annual balls in the Whitewood Town Hall and of their participation in the Whitewood town band. In addition to directing a large influx of French-speaking Catholics into the area, they left behind a well-endowed parish Church. The twenty-eight quarter-sections sold to the Diocese of St. Boniface by de Roffignac and van Brabant, and the land sold to the Diocese prior to 'the Counts' departure from the district, were in turn sold by the Diocese to the French congregation of priests known as the 'Sons of Mary Immaculate'. This congregation established St. Hubert and Whitewood as a mission in 1903. According to Mrs. Bernadette (Emile) Gatin of Whitewood, the first superior of St. Hubert, Fr. Boutin (Mrs. Gatin's uncle) negotiated the deal with Archbishop Langevin. On April 20, 1904 it is known that all the land purchased for the Diocese in Township fourteen was still in the possession of the congregation. Most of this land would be sold to parishioners by 1911. As for the land in Township fifteen, no record of its sale is available to the author. Possibly it was sold by the Diocese to immigrants arriving in the area after 1890. The strong role played by the Church in guiding the development of the colony reflects the special role 'the Counts' played when St. Hubert was being established. They not only gave the settlement an added stimulus to its growth, by establishing their various enterprises and encouraging immigration into the area, they helped to place the Church in the central position of authority in the community. This denotes the "chief originality" of the settlement. If the aristocrats were not chased away by raging prairie fires or blizzards, then they left at the outbreak of the first World War to serve. Many of the labourers and supporting entourage stayed in the settlement such as house servants, coachmen, artisans, gardeners, horse groomsmen, and tenant farmers. These were joined by other settlers from Belgium and France as well as Fannystelle, Manitoba. Fannystelle was settled south of Winnipeg by Countess Marthe d'Albuféra. The neighbouring town of Dumas was also a French ethnic bloc settlement. Another Franco-Belgian settlement was started in