Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Ancient Past
• The Arrival of the Europeans & The Fur Trade
• The First Nations
• The Métis
• Law & Order Arrives in the Old West
• Famous Outlaws & Lawmen of Alberta
• The Settlers Move West
• Cattle Ranching- coming soon
• The Rodeo
• Alberta Facts & Trivia

Friends of the Wild West Agriculture and Music Society ®History of Alberta - Alberta Facts and Trivia

The Province of Alberta

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Facts & Trivia About Our Great Western Province

• Officially Granted Provincial status on September 1st, 1905.
• Named after Princess Louisa Caroline Alberta, the 4th child of Queen Victoria. The Princess was born in 1848, and married the Governor General of Canada, John Campbell. In addition to providing the province its name, the Princess is also the namesake for Lake Louise in the Rocky Mountains.
• Alberta’s official motto is Fortis et Liber, Latin for “strong & free.”
• Official symbols:
1. Flower: the wild rose
2. Bird: the great horned owl
3. Stone: petrified wood
4. Tree: lodgepole pine
5. Fish: bull trout
6. Colours: blue & gold
• Alberta covers an area of 661,000 square kilometres, and measures 1200 km north-south and 699 km east-west at its widest point.
• Edmonton recycles more waste than any other city in the world.
• The population of Alberta crossed the 3 million mark in 2000, with 80% of the populace living in a city setting, and the other 20% being rural. Alberta’s population accounts for slightly more than 10% of the national total. The current population is approximately 3.3 million.
• The main rivers of Alberta are the Peace River, the Athabaska River, and the North & South Saskatchewan Rivers.
• Edmonton was the first city in North America to have a light-rail railway system.
• Of all Canadian provinces, Alberta has the distinction of emitting the highest amount of greenhouse gases, although we are followed closely by Ontario and Quebec.
• Only Saudi Arabia has more oil reserves than Canada, and almost all of that oil is found in Alberta.
• The height from the top of the loop to the floor of the Mindbender rollercoaster at West Edmonton Mall is just slightly less than the height of the Statue of Liberty in New York City (looks bigger on TV).
• Alberta, along with Quebec and Manitoba, are the only Canadian provinces where the legal alcohol consumption age is 18 years. The remainder of the country sits at the much more mature age of 19 years.
• The average age in Fort McMurray is 30 years.
• Olds was the first town to be incorporated into the newly created Province of Alberta in 1905.
• Alberta currently has the highest standard of living in Canada.
• Alcoholic spirits were illegal during Prohibition in Alberta which lasted from July 21st, 1915, until 1924.
• Alberta has the only animal forensics lab in the world, The Neil Crawford Centre.
• The Progressive Conservative party has been in power in Alberta since 1971.
• According to a study by Environment Canada, Alberta possesses the best overall weather in Canada. The same study found that Quebec has the worst weather in Canada.
• Edmonton has the most retail space per capita in Canada.
• The City of Calgary recycles 355,000 cubic metres of sewage a day, returning purified water to the Bow River, and using the human waste as agricultural fertilizer. Before you condemn this as completely disgusting, just know that crops fertilized with human waste are far more productive. Plus its free, and in abundant supply!
• The Calgary International Airport is the 3rd busiest airport in Canada. Edmonton’s is 5th.
• The Peter Lougheed Bridge in Fort McMurray was never completed, and literally goes nowhere.
• Cold-FX, the #1 cold & flu medicine in Canada, was invented at CV Technologies in Edmonton.
• The Frank Slide of April 29th, 1903 in southern Alberta, is considered Canada’s worst natural disaster. 76 miners were killed when the entranceway to their mine was buried by 30 million cubic meters of rock when the face of Turtle Mountain gave way. Three square kilometres were buried in under ninety seconds, Turtle Mountain was declared unstable, and the town of Frank was relocated nearby.
• Calgary is Canada’s third most densely populated city, and the largest in Alberta.
• People consume 4536 kg of pancakes, 1814 kg of bacon and sausage, 5,000 bottles of syrup, and 85,000 juice containers every year at Calgary Stampede breakfasts across the city.
• West Edmonton Mall used to be the world’s biggest shopping mall until the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, China opened in 2004. In 2005, the even bigger South China Mall, also in Beijing, opened, putting West Ed in 3rd place globally. West Ed is still the biggest mall in Canada.
• Medicine Hat and Lethbridge hosted the two largest POW camps in Canada during WWII.
• The Caesar Cocktail was created by Calgary bartender Walter Chell, when he added “clam nectar” (whatever that is) to a Bloody Mary (vodka and tomato juice).
• The Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton (built in 1937 by the Lebanese community) was Canada’s first mosque.
• There has been one death from a grizzly attack in Alberta in the past 50 years.
• Alberta has the largest French-speaking population of all the western provinces.
• There are no liquor stores in Cardston.
• Men outnumbered women in 1911 Alberta 155 to 100.
• The Calgary Stampede is Canada’s largest annual event.
• Since the law has never been repealed, businesses in Alberta must provide rails for tying up horses. Furthermore, upon release from prison, the ex-convict is supposed to be provided with a gun, bullets, and a horse, so that they may ride out of town unmolested.
• There is an employee at West Edmonton Mall whose only job is to replace the light bulbs.
• The Cypress Hills are the only region of the province that was left untouched by glaciers during the last ice age.
• Alberta is home to almost half (40%) of Canada’s UN World Heritage Sites.
• Calgary’s light-rail train system, the C-train, is completely wind-powered and emission-free.
• As of 2003, Edmonton and Calgary had the highest impaired driver rates in the nation.
• A motor-vehicle accident occurs every 72 seconds (on average) in Alberta.
• Cows can go upstairs, but not down.
• It is illegal to paint wooden logs in Alberta.
• Falher, Alberta, is the Honey Capital of Canada, producing 4.5 million kilograms of liquid gold per year.
• Coal mined in Alberta contains very little sulphur, and therefore burns much cleaner than other types of coal.
• Calgary Stampede founder Guy Weadick is buried in High River.
• The Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs their first year in the NHL, in 1979. They won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 1984.
• The town of Nisku got its name from a misunderstanding. When CPR representatives asked the head of a Polish community to name the town, he misunderstood, and described the land as nisko tu, Polish for “low, flat land here.” The CPR representatives heard Nisku, hence the name.
• Former Prime Minister Joe Clark is from High River.
• The Calgary Stampede has been billed “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” since its inception in 1912.
• Parts of the movies Superman II and Superman III were shot in Calgary, High River, and the Columbia Icefields. In fact, in Superman III, after the bad Superman ruins the bar by breaking bottles with flicked peanuts and melting the mirror with his heat vision, you can see the Calgary Tower and a C-Train in the background as he flies away!
• St. Paul has the world's only UFO landing pad. Well done!
• The Olympic Oval on the University of Calgary campus was North America’s first covered speed-skating arena.
• The town of Hinton has moved 10 times along a 12 km stretch of railroad in the past 100 years.
• Canadians actually ate more beef during the 2003 mad cow crisis.
• Edmonton has the 3rd highest murder rate among Canadian cities.
• Alberta is the only Canadian province with no debt.
• The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics were the first Olympic Games to turn a profit.
• First Nations in Alberta were granted the vote in 1965, the second last province in Canada to do so (Quebec was the last).
• Java script was invented by Calgarian James Gosling.
• Red Deer was Canada’s fastest growing community in 1904.
• In 1905, 64 hectares of Alberta land could be purchased by any 21 year old male who had $10 in his pocket on the condition that they lived on the land at least six months out of the year for the first three years, and cultivated a minimum of 16 hectares.
• It used to be illegal to tie a male horse next to a female horse on Main Street in Wetaskiwin.
• An early version of Banff National Park, called “Rocky Mountain Park”, was Canada’s first National Park.
• King George VI was the first reigning British monarch to visit Alberta.
• The system of lanes that were used to drive bison over the edge of the cliff at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is the largest in the world.
• Bowden has the only police dog training facility in the country.
• There are twice as many cows in Alberta as people.
• Oil was discovered in Turner Valley in 1914, starting Alberta’s first oil boom.
• Lake Louise is the highest town in Canada at 1540 metres.
• Alberta’s first wheat was grown in the Lac La Biche region.
• Leeshore is the site of the first recorded crop circle.
• Only 18.5% of Alberta’s roads are paved.
• There is no such plant as Canola. Canola oil actually comes from the unfortunately named rapeseed plant.
• In 23 Grey Cup meetings, the Edmonton Eskimos have bested the Calgary Stampeders 13 times. Calgary fans boast that, “ we still beat them nearly half the time.”
• The Olympic Hall of Fame in Calgary is the world’s largest Olympic museum.
• Lethbridge started life as an illegal whisky trading post (Fort Whoop-Up), and grew thanks to the nearby Oldman coal mine.
• Rexall Place in Edmonton has been using the same dirt for the Canadian Finals Rodeo for 30 years. It’s cleaned and returned every year.
• Edmonton’s public telephone system was the first in North America to use 911 to call emergency services.
• Swan Hills sits on top of the 3rd largest oilfield in Canada. It’s also the highest point in Alberta east of the Rockies at 1210 metres, and boasts some spectacular views (just ignore all the oil pump jacks).
• Alberta is second in impaired driver offenses only to Saskatchewan.
• The Petro-Canada building in downtown Calgary is the tallest skyscraper in Canada, as long as you ignore downtown Toronto.
• Women were granted the vote in 1916.
• Lloydminster is the only city in Canada that straddles two provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan)
• There are NO (as in zero) Norwegian rats in Alberta, the only place in Canada that can say that.
• Wetaskiwin is the “Car Capital of Canada” with more car sales per capita than anywhere else in the country.
• Drayton Valley was Alberta’s first government-planned model town.
• The motion picture The Running Man, was originally supposed to be filmed in Edmonton, with Christopher Reeve cast in the role of Ben Richards. However, producers decided to move the production to Los Angeles, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was recast in the role.
• “Old Glory” in the Bow Island gas field was Alberta’s first well and the first major discovery in the oil & gas industry in 1908.
• Whitecourt is “Canada’s Snowmobiling Capital.”
• The oil collapse of the 1980s was the worst economic disaster in Alberta since the Great Depression.
• Edmonton was founded in 1795 as Fort Edmonton, an HBC trading post. Calgary was founded in 1875 as Fort Calgary, a NWMP fort.
• Calgary means “clear water” in Gaelic.
• Alberta has the youngest overall population in Canada.
• Joni Mitchell, Michael J. Fox, George Fox, Terri Clark, Natasha Henstridge, k.d. lang, Leslie Nielsen, Eric McCormack, Ian Tyson, Nickelback, and Jann Arden all hail form Alberta.
• Edmonton has more parkland per capita than any other city in North America.
• Alberta’s legislature sits on quicksand…REALLY.

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