It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as the cultural and economic hub of central Saskatchewan since its founding in 1882 as a Temperance colony.

[11] Saskatoon is home to the University of Saskatchewan, the Meewasin Valley Authority—which protects the South Saskatchewan River and provides for the city's popular riverbank park spaces—and Wanuskewin Heritage Park, a National Historic Site of Canada and UNESCO World Heritage applicant representing 6,000 years of First Nations history.

[13] In 1882, the Toronto-based Temperance Colonization Society was granted 21 sections of land straddling the South Saskatchewan River, between what is now Warman and Dundurn.

The following year settlers, led by John Neilson Lake, arrived on the site of what is now Saskatoon and established the first permanent settlement.

Chief Whitecap and Charles Trottier passed through the present day University campus on their way to join Louis Riel's armed forces at Batoche, Saskatchewan.

A town charter for the west side of the river was obtained in 1903, and this settlement adopted the name Saskatoon; the original townsite, which became a village that year, was renamed Nutana.

[17] Saskatoon lies on a long belt of rich, potassic chernozem in middle-southern Saskatchewan and is found in the aspen parkland biome.

Thunderstorms are common in the summer months and can be severe with torrential rain, hail, high winds, intense lightning and, on occasion, tornadoes.

The frost-free growing season lasts from May 21 to September 15,[21] but due to Saskatoon's northerly location, damaging frosts have occurred as late as June 14[22] and again as early as August.

[44] The Saskatoon area was inhabited long before any permanent settlement was established, to which the ongoing archaeological work at Wanuskewin Heritage Park and other locations bears witness.

[49] Most First Nations residents are of Cree or Dakota cultural background although to a lesser extent Saulteaux, Assiniboine, and Dene communities also exist.

Since opening in 1967, it has hosted scores of concerts, theatrical performances, live events such as the Telemiracle telethon, high school graduation and university convocation ceremonies, and conventions.

Musical acts from Saskatoon include Joni Mitchell, Kyle Riabko, Wide Mouth Mason, The Northern Pikes, The Sheepdogs, One Bad Son and The Deep Dark Woods, as well as countless others popular at both local and regional levels.

In the late 1990s, the Saskatoon Exhibition was rescheduled to August so that it no longer was in direct competition with the Calgary Stampede, which frequently overlapped the event.

[70] In the winter the Meewasin Skating Rink is open free to the public; it is in Kiwanis Memorial Park beside the Delta Bessborough hotel.

For years, a parcel of land west of the Traffic Bridge, south of 19th Street, and east of Avenue C has been the subject of on-again, off-again redevelopment plans.

[76] Other landmarks in the city include the iconic Traffic Bridge (which was demolished in 2016 and is currently being replaced by a new structure evoking the appearance of the original), the University of Saskatchewan campus, and the large Viterra grain terminal which has dominated the western skyline of the city for decades and is large enough to be visible from Pike Lake Provincial Park 32 km away.

[77] Various grains, livestock, oil and gas, potash, uranium, gold, diamond, coal and their spin off industries fuel the economy.

[104] In the early 1990s, the Saskatoon police were found to engage in "starlight tours," where officers would arrest Indigenous men and drive them out of the city in the dead of winter to abandon them.

Non-stop scheduled destinations include Calgary, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Prince Albert, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.

Bill Hunter, a local sports promoter, attempted to purchase the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL) and move them to Saskatoon.

[115] In the early 1990s, Hunter made a bid for a Saskatoon expansion NHL franchise, but ultimately failed to secure adequate funding.

The Saskatoon Valkyries are the Western Women's Canadian Football League's most successful club, having won 8 WWCFL Championships since play began in 2011.

In 2009, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series made its inaugural stop there, signalling a move to a larger profile track in Saskatoon.

Marquis Downs at Prairieland Park hosted horse racing from 1969 until 2020; the owners hope to build a soccer-specific stadium on the site.

Saskatoon is home to several golf courses and various parks which include tennis courts, ball diamonds, and soccer pitches for spring, summer, and fall use, and outdoor rinks for winter use.

The Queen most recently visited for a gala concert at Credit Union Centre, before a live audience of 12,000 and television viewers nationwide in 2005.

These include King George, Queen Elizabeth and Massey Place neighbourhoods, and Victoria, Coronation and Princess Diana parks.

In 2002, 378 Saskatoon residents were presented with Canada's Golden Jubilee Medal by vice-regals to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne.

The city says it is working on a proper policy and management framework for handling new applications as Madison, Wisconsin applied to be a twin in 2018, but was told Saskatoon had no intention to move forward with the plan "at this time.