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Alberta Place NamesCanada and Alberta Place Names - the name of this western province is inseparable from the maverick attitude it connotes. Alberta conjures images of honest, backbreaking work and freedom from the restraints of propriety and status in older settled lands. Alberta invokes the notion that reward comes from ability and hard work, not from title or position. The
Province of Alberta
is named for the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
How Alberta Cities, Towns, Villages and Hamlets Got their Place NamesFocusing not just on basic facts, The Story Behind Alberta Place Names fleshes out fascinating personalities using humorous anecdotes, the context of people’s lives and careers, and the relationship between individuals and the places named for them. Harry M. Sanders A great book!Vulcan (category name place - Mythological)Town on Highway 23, approximately 85 kilometres south southeast of Calgary.“When Vulcan, god of fire and patron saint of blacksmiths, pointed thunderbolts for Jupiter at the crater of Mount Etna” observed the Vulcan Review in 1912, “he was engaged in no grander occupation than are the people of the modern town of Vulcan who are making two blades grow where none grew before, and developing a grain belt and business centre that is phenomenal even for Alberta.” Vulcan was established with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Kipp-Aldersyde line, town site lots were sold in 1910. Street and avenue names in Vulcan originally included Apollo, Atlas, Juno, Jupiter, Mars, Neptune and Vulcan. They were later changed to numbers, but the town readopted then in 1998 for Vulcan’s 85th anniversary. Vulcan later embraced a Star Trek motif, capitalizing on the name of Mr Spock’s home planet. A starship model similar to the U.S.S. Enterprise greets motorists form the highway. The tourist centre is called the Vulcan Trek and Tourist Station, Vulcan’s annual rodeo has been termed Spock days. Vulcan was incorporated as a village in 1912 and as a town in 1921. Great Alberta Place Names here for you!
County of Vulcan - Villages and Hamlets more Alberta Place NamesArrowwood (category - Shift Name) Village on Secondary Highway 547, approximately 68 kilometres east southeast of Calgary
The brushes that grow along the creek that flows through this village- and the historic use of those brushes by native peoples-provided the name for East Arrowwood Creek and its companion, West Arrowwood Creek. Both flow through the Siksika Reserve, of which this town site was a part until it was sold in 1911. The name Arrowwood shifted to an irrigation project developed between the creeks around 1905, and when the post office opened in 1909, the name stuck. Arrowwood was incorporated as a village in 1926.
In 1904 Charles Whitney Carman of Chicago, a civil engineer, acquired 600 hectares of land along the Little Bow River and formed the Carmangay Farm Company, which he named after himself and his wife, the former Mill Gay. The river narrowed at this point, and Carman reasoned correctly the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) would in future traverse this property. He surveyed the town site of Carmangay and auctioned town lots once the CPR arrived in 1909. Along with their son, Gay, the Carmans eventually moved back to Chicago-much wealthier than when they came. Carmangay was incorporated as a town in 1911, but reverted to village status in 1936. An unusual Alberta place name.
In 1906, martin George Clever and second wife Jennie quit their native Iowa to homestead in southern Alberta, north of the Little Bow River. Clever’s offer of free lots on his property attracted businesses and created the instant hamlet of Cleverville. When the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) started planning its Kipp-Aldersyde line, the company tried to buy Clever’s remaining property through a third party. Clever was no dummy; he knew who wanted his land and demanded a better price. The CPR responded by buying another farm west of Cleverville and developing it in 1910 as the Its buildings and people moved to Champion, and all that remains is a stone cairn on a lonely highway that reads, “Village of Clevervillle-1906-1910”
Champion was named for Henry Thomson Champion (1847-1916), a Winnipeg banker and onetime chairman of the Winnipeg Stock Exchange. Born in Toronto, Champion came west during the Manitoba Insurrection of 1870 as a sergeant in the Wolseley Expedition, then remained in Winnipeg for the rest of his life. If he had no other Alberta connection, at least Champion lived on Winnipeg’s Edmonton Street.
G.R. Plumb opened the area’s first post office in 1910, and it was known as Brunetta. With the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1914, the post office shifted to the new town site and was renamed Lomond, presumably for Loch Lomond in Scotland. Lomond became a village in 1916.
In 1907 Ontario-born Milo Munroe (circa 1865-1928) homesteaded north of Vulcan and opened a post office in his farmhouse the following year. Despite his brief tenure as postmaster, this railway village retains Munroe’s first name. The Canadian Pacific Raiway bypassed the original Milo settlement when it arrived in 1924, and the railway company laid out the present village at that time. Milo was incorporated in 1931. Milo Munroe died in Calgary.
Joseph Higginbotham Saxon Moss (1859-1914) hailed from Bedford Leigh, Lincolnshire, which should explain the origin of both components of the name-“Moss” and “leigh”. According to the family’s account, however, Leigh was Moss’ mother’s family name. As a child, Moss immigrated to Quebec with his parents, and in 1879 he came west with a survey party, befriending surveyor Charles Magrath (who later became the first mayor of Lethbridge and for whom the town of Magrath was named). He worked as a freighter during the North West rebellion of 1885 and later worked for Montana-based I.G. Baker & Co. Moss’ wife, Elizabeth, reportedly provided Mossleigh as the name for the local school district, which she served as secretary-treasurer until her death in 1911. The name was later used for the hamlet. Find these Alberta Place Names
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