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73-519: Fort Assiniboine is a hamlet in northwest Alberta , Canada, within Woodlands County . It is located along the north shore of the Athabasca River at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661 . It is approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) northwest of Barrhead , 62 kilometres (39 mi) southeast of Swan Hills and 91 kilometres (57 mi) northeast of Whitecourt . Fort Assiniboine

146-565: A buurtschap officially is a part of another place (e.g. Bartlehiem , part of Wyns ). In Pakistan, a hamlet is called a gaaon گاؤں or mauza موضع in Urdu , giraaan گراں or pind پنڈ in Punjabi , and kalay کلې in Pashto . It is almost synonymous to 'village'. In Poland, the law recognises a number of different kinds of rural settlement . Przysiółek (which can be translated as "hamlet") refers to

219-404: A dorp (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store) and contains often only one street, bearing the same name. The houses and farms of a gehucht or a buurtschap can be scattered. Though there are strong similarities between a gehucht and buurtschap , the words are not interchangeable. A gehucht officially counts as an independent place of residence (e.g. Wateren ), while

292-442: A new generation co-operative , Westlock Terminals (NGC) LTD. Also, Westlock is a centre of government as it is the location of Westlock County's municipal office and home of public and Catholic schools, a courthouse, a public library, and a modern hospital. As such, Westlock is the central town of the region where rural families do business, send their children to school, and obtain government services. Many rural people retire in

365-616: A Fort Assiniboine Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion . A United Church and a Roman Catholic Church were built in 1948 and 1949. The curling club was formed and a rink built in 1953. In 1956 a bridge was built over the Athabasca River, putting the ferry out of business. Fort Assiniboine was a hamlet until incorporated as a village in 1958. E.M. (Gene) Redington was the first mayor. The Village of Fort Assiniboine dissolved and reverted to hamlet status on December 31, 1991. It

438-426: A cluster of farms. Osada (which is typically translated as "settlement" but also can be translated as "hamlet") includes smaller settlements especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace (like mill settlements, forest settlements, fishing settlements, railway settlements, former State Agricultural Farm settlements). They can be an independent settlement, or

511-431: A designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fort Assiniboine had a population of 176 living in 78 of its 83 total private dwellings, a change of 13.5% from its 2011 population of 155. With a land area of 0.73 km (0.28 sq mi), it had a population density of 241.1/km (624.4/sq mi) in 2016. Fort Assiniboine is home to a Hudson's Bay–style historical museum, known as

584-454: A distinction was often that selo has a church and derevnia has not. The once common Russian word хутор ( khutor ) for the smallest type of rural settlement (arguably closest in nature to the English hamlet) is now mostly obsolete. The state of USSR wanted to have some form of basic infrastructure and central authority at each and every settlement. Obviously, this is the opposite of a hamlet -

657-451: A few houses in the rural outskirts of a village. In Ukraine, a very small village such as a hamlet usually is called a selyshche or khutir . There also existed such places like volia , sloboda , huta , buda , and others. In England , the word hamlet (having the French origin given at the top of this article) means (in current usage) simply a small settlement, maybe of

730-414: A few houses or farms, smaller than a village. However, traditionally and legally, it means a village or a town without a church, although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. Historically, it may refer to a secondary settlement in a civil parish , after the main settlement (if any); such an example is the hamlet of Chipping being the secondary settlement within

803-470: A hamlet can be traced back to Norman England , where the Old French hamelet came to apply to small human settlements. The word comes from Anglo-Norman hamelet , corresponding to Old French hamelet , the diminutive of Old French hamel meaning a little village. This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French ham , possibly borrowed from ( West Germanic ) Franconian languages . It

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876-894: A hamlet is called a "bigha" . In state of Karnataka , a hamlet is known by different names like Palya , Hadi (Haadi), Keri , and Padi (Paadi). In olden days, the human population of hamlet was less than Halli (Village) or Ooru (Uru). But in the 20th century with tremendous increase in population, some of these hamlets have become villages, towns, cities or merged with them. All over Indonesia , hamlets are translated as "small village", desa or kampung . They are known as dusun in Central Java and East Java, banjar in Bali, jorong or kampuang in West Sumatra . The Dutch words for hamlet are gehucht or buurtschap . A gehucht or buurtschap has, compared to

949-430: A hamlet lacks a compact core settlement and lacks a central building such as a church or inn. However, some hamlets ( Kirchwiler ) may have grown up as an unplanned settlement around a church. There is no population limit that defines a hamlet and some hamlets have a larger population than some of the smallest municipalities. Generally there are no street names in a hamlet; rather, addresses are given by hamlet name and

1022-462: A land area of 13.37 km (5.16 sq mi), it had a population density of 368.1/km (953.3/sq mi) in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Westlock recorded a population of 5,101 living in 2,142 of its 2,333 total private dwellings, a 5.8% change from its 2011 population of 4,823. With a land area of 13.37 km (5.16 sq mi), it had

1095-506: A larger entity (e.g. parish or municipality ). In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official gazetteer of population entities. In the Royal Order and Instruction of the 8 of March 1930, issued for the elaboration of the Annual gazetteer, the hamlet ( aldea ) is defined as the population entity with the smallest population and neighbourhood, usually more disseminated than

1168-620: A museum and friendship centre. In 1898, when the Chalmers, or Klondike Trail was cut through the Swan Hills, northwest of Fort Assiniboine to Lesser Slave Lake, the location again became a stopping point, with gold seekers crossing the river with a self-service ferry on their overland trek to the Yukon . The earliest homesteads in the area were filed in 1906 in the Holmes Crossing district (named for

1241-500: A number. House numbers might start at one side of the hamlet and continue to the other side or may have no clear organization. A hamlet may form or have formed a Bürgergemeinde (legal place of citizenship regardless of where a person was born or currently lives) and may own common property for the Bürgergemeinde . In Turkey , a hamlet is known as a mezra and denotes a small satellite settlement usually consisting of

1314-456: A parent commune . In the Russian language, there are several words which mean "a hamlet", but all of them are approximately equivalent. The most common word is деревня ( derevnia , the word meant "an arable" in the past); the words село ( selo , from the Russian word селиться ( selit'tsa ), meaning "to settle") and посёлок ( posiolok ) are quite frequently used, too. Parallel to many other cultures,

1387-403: A part of another settlement, like a village. In Romania , hamlets are called cătune (singular: cătun ), and they represent villages that contain several houses at most. They are legally considered villages, and statistically, they are placed in the same category. Like villages, they do not have a separate administration, and thus are not an administrative division, but are part of

1460-460: A place without either for being too small to meaningfully support those. Even without state pressure, once one of the neighboring khutor s got a permanent shop, school, community center (known in Russia as дом культуры, "house of culture"), maybe a medical post, others would naturally relocate closer, drawing together into one village. Thus, the diminutive form деревенька ( derevenka , tiny derevnia )

1533-447: A population density of 381.5/km (988.1/sq mi) in 2016. The population of the Town of Westlock according to its 2015 municipal census is 5,147, a 0% change from its 2008 municipal census population of 4,964. NB The following sections present select demographic statistics arising out of the Canada 2006 Census . Population and dwelling unit figures presented within are rounded to

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1606-471: A regular workplace that was not their own home (1,950) commuted to work by private automobile. Of all persons in Westlock aged 15 years and older with income in 2005, 11.0% reported being below the low income cutoff before taxes. For those under the age of 18, the rate was 10.4% (compared to Alberta averages of 12.2% and 14.2% respectively). The area around Westlock is primarily agricultural , although there

1679-540: A specific service, such as water, sewer, or lighting to provide only that hamlet with services. A hamlet could be described as the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined; it may be designated by the Census Bureau , or it may rely on some other form of border (such as a ZIP Code , school district or fire district for more urbanized areas; rural hamlets are typically only demarcated by speed zones on

1752-458: A village. The term Lieu-dit is also applied to hamlets, but this can also refer to uninhabited localities. During the 18th century, it was fashionable for rich or noble people to create their own hameau in their gardens . This was a group of houses or farms with rustic appearance, but in fact very comfortable. The best known are the Hameau de la Reine built by the queen Marie-Antoinette in

1825-584: Is ferm toun , used in the specific case of a farm settlement, including outbuildings and agricultural workers' homes. The term hamlet was used in Wales to denote a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, mostly in England, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings". The Welsh word for "hamlet" is pentrefan (also pentrefyn ). Both these words are diminutives of pentref ("village") with

1898-554: Is a relatively fertile region of dark soils. To the north lies the subarctic climate zone. The mean annual precipitation averaged from one meteorological station within the county measured 468 millimetres (mm), based on data from 1980 to 1990. The mean annual temperature averaged 1.9 °C, with the mean monthly temperature reaching a high of 16.8 °C in July, and dropping to a low of −11.4 °C in January. Prior to European settlement,

1971-503: Is also served by a post office and the Fort Assiniboine Public Library. It has numerous businesses including a general store, a motel, a gas station, a liquor store and a shop that repairs and sells all-terrain and other vehicles. Fort Assiniboine had a subarctic climate ( Köppen Dfc ), characterized by pleasant summers and frigid, although extremely variable, winters. Hamlet (place) The word and concept of

2044-510: Is also used for designating small groups of rural dwellings or farmhouses. A hamlet in Spain is a human settlement, usually located in rural areas, and typically smaller in size and population than a village (called in Spain, pueblo Spanish: [ˈpweβlo] ). The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain ( Asturias , Cantabria and Galicia ) dependent on

2117-500: Is in widespread, albeit unofficial, use to denote such settlements, which mostly possess the amenities of a village yet the size of hamlet. In Spain , a hamlet is called lugar , aldea or cortijada ( Spanish: [koɾtiˈxaða] ). The word comes from the Spanish term cortijo («estate»). In the South of Spain, the term caserío ( Spanish: [kaseˈɾi.o] )

2190-575: Is located approximately 85 km (53 mi) north of Edmonton , Alberta's provincial capital and Canada's sixth largest census metropolitan area . Westlock sits at the junction of Highway 44 and Highway 18 . It is surrounded by Westlock County within Census Division 13 . Westlock lies on the Alberta plain , one of the Great Plains . It lies just to the north of the continental divide between

2263-489: Is now administered by Woodlands County, which has offices in the hamlet and in Whitecourt . In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Fort Assiniboine had a population of 158 living in 64 of its 74 total private dwellings, a change of -10.2% from its 2016 population of 176. With a land area of 0.75 km (0.29 sq mi), it had a population density of 210.7/km (545.6/sq mi) in 2021. As

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2336-494: Is part of a larger municipality. In different states of India , there are different words for hamlet. In Haryana and Rajasthan , it is called " dhani " ( Hindi : ढाणी ḍhāṇī ) or "Thok" . In Gujarat , a hamlet is called a "nesada" , which are more prevalent in the Gir forest . In Maharashtra , it is called a "pada" . In southern Bihar, especially in the Magadh division ,

2409-442: Is related to the modern French hameau , Dutch heem , Frisian hiem , German Heim , Old English hām , and Modern English home . In Afghanistan , the counterpart of the hamlet is the qala ( Dari : قلعه, Pashto : کلي) meaning "fort" or "hamlet". The Afghan qala is a fortified group of houses, generally with its own community building such as a mosque, but without its own marketplace. The qala

2482-429: Is some oil and gas activity. The main employers in town include the hotels and inns that cater to oilpatch workers, the farm implement dealerships, and some small manufacturing such as Wabash Mfg. Inc. - custom manufacturing, and a Lafarge cement plant. Additionally, Westlock still retains its original purpose as a centre for the grain trade , as CN still accepts grains from the remaining grain elevators, now owned by

2555-450: Is the smallest type of settlement in Afghan society, outsized by the village ( Dari / Pashto : ده), which is larger and includes a commercial area. In Canada's three territories , hamlets are officially designated municipalities . As of January 1, 2010: In Canada's provinces, hamlets are usually small unincorporated communities within a larger municipality (similar to civil townships in

2628-563: The Athabasca and North Saskatchewan river basins , and to the east of the Pembina River , a tributary of the Athabasca. The town is about 670 metres (2,200 ft) above mean sea level . Westlock sits within the humid continental climate zone, on the northern edge of the aspen parkland belt, a once heavily treed region that was cleared for agriculture at the turn of the 20th century. It

2701-690: The Athabasca Pass within the Rocky Mountains , to Fort Edmonton and thence to York Factory on the Hudson Bay . A party on horseback could make the trip from Edmonton to Fort Assiniboine in two to six days, depending on conditions. The new route was used by the York Factory Express . The old canoe route involved going far north-northeast down the Athabasca to Fort Chipewyan and then southeast through Methye Portage to Lake Winnipeg. Though

2774-660: The Memorial Hall was also built. In 1992 the Memorial Hall burned down, later to be replaced. In 1995, the hospital was replaced by the Westlock Health Care Centre, a somewhat controversial decision because several other communities in Alberta were facing hospital closures at the time. In 1997, the old hospital was demolished. On February 22, 2024, Westlock residents narrowly passed a popular initiative prohibiting

2847-506: The Town of Hempstead , with a population of over 50,000, are more populous than some incorporated cities in the state. In Oregon , specifically in Clackamas County , a hamlet is a form of local government for small communities that allows the citizens therein to organize and co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services, such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have

2920-401: The lugar , though its buildings can be also organised in streets and plazas. In the four national languages, hamlets are known as Weiler (German), hameaux (French), frazioni (Italian) and fracziun ( Romansh ). A hamlet is always part of a larger municipality or may be shared between two municipalities. The difference between a hamlet and a village is that typically

2993-488: The 10,000-person threshold that can choose to incorporate as a city in Alberta. As such, these two hamlets have been further designated by the Province of Alberta as urban service areas . An urban service area is recognized as equivalent to a city for the purposes of provincial and federal program delivery and grant eligibility. A hamlet, French: hameau , is a group of rural dwellings, usually too small to be considered

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3066-442: The Alberta median incomes of $ 63,988 and $ 73,823 respectively. In 2006, there were 3,945 people who claimed English as their mother tongue , 125 who chose French, and 10 who indicated both. In addition, 600 claimed another language (besides English and French) as a mother tongue. Every person in town claimed at least a working knowledge of English, 4,450 said it was their only language, 220 said they also knew French, not one person

3139-461: The Athabasca River. In 1821, the North West Company was merged with Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), who then undertook to reorganize its transportation routes, seeking out advantages and efficiencies in its operations. By then, trade on Lesser Slave Lake was in decline and the council adopted a resolution in 1823 calling for a fort further up the Athabasca River to reduce transport times. Under

3212-621: The Fort Assiniboine Museum and Friendship Club Drop-In Centre, and the world's largest wagon wheel and pick axe. A boat launch east of the hamlet provides river-boaters access to the Athabasca River. There is also a private R.V. park and marina, which hosted the Athabasca River Voyageur Canoe Brigade in June 2017, celebrating Canada's 150th birthday. A farmer's market is held every Friday afternoon from May to September in

3285-539: The Recreation and Agriculture Building, which also hosts agricultural and sports events throughout the year including the annual Hamlet Hoedown Rodeo & Fair, held each August. The Fort Assiniboine School, which offers kindergarten through Grade 9, is located within the hamlet. Students in Grades 10-12 are bussed to Barrhead Composite High School. Both are administered by Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS). Fort Assiniboine

3358-476: The United States), such as many communities within the single-tier municipalities of Ontario , Alberta 's specialized and rural municipalities, and Saskatchewan 's rural municipalities. Canada's two largest hamlets— Fort McMurray (formerly incorporated as a city) and Sherwood Park —are located in Alberta. They each have populations, within their main urban area, in excess of 60,000—well in excess of

3431-553: The area around Westlock was inhabited by First Nations people, notably the Cree . Although the fur trade had been active in Alberta since 1754 when Anthony Henday explored the area, the Westlock district was not mentioned in writing until David Thompson came through in April 1799. White settlement did not begin until 1902 at that time centred on a rural community about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of present-day Westlock. The founding family

3504-610: The authority to levy taxes or fees. There are four hamlets in Oregon: Beavercreek , Mulino , Molalla Prairie , and Stafford . In Vietnam , a hamlet ( xóm , ấp ) is the smallest unofficial administrative unit. It is a subdivision of a commune or township ( xã ). Westlock Westlock is a town in central Alberta , Canada. Founded in 1913, the town is primarily an agricultural, business, and government administration centre serving communities and rural areas within surrounding Westlock County . Westlock

3577-519: The civil parish of Buckland . Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets may be the result of the depopulation of a village ; examples of such a hamlet are Graby and Shapwick . Because of the hilly topography of the parish, the village of Clent , situated on the Clent Hills , consists of five distinct hamlets. In Northern Ireland ,

3650-559: The common Irish place name element baile is sometimes considered equivalent to the term hamlet in English, although baile would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a townland : that is to say, a geographical locality rather than a small village. In the Scottish Highlands , the term clachan , of Gaelic derivation, may be preferred to the term hamlet . Also found in Scotland more generally

3723-451: The ferryman William B. Holmes), across the Athabasca and downriver from Fort Assiniboine. Most came via Edmonton, by way of the Hudson's Bay Pack Trail, which had been widened by then to accommodate wagons and sleighs. The graded road only went to about 16 km (10 mi) west of Morinville . By 1908 settlers crossed on the ferry and took up land north of the Athabasca River, including around

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3796-527: The first grain elevator was built. The first bank branch , the Merchant's Bank opened its doors in 1918. A permanent brick schoolhouse was built in 1925. The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Halifax) operated a hospital out of a former house in 1927, and a purpose-built hospital, the Immaculata, was opened in 1928. Westlock became a town on 7 January 1947 with a population of 854. That same year,

3869-401: The flying of flags related to "political, social, or religious movements or commercial entities" on municipal property, and the painting of zebra crossings in any colours other than white. The referendum was criticized by Mayor Jon Kramer, councilmen, and other politicians for prohibiting the official display of pride flags and the painting of rainbow crossings . Kramer stated the plebiscite

3942-450: The fort never grew as large as some other Alberta forts, its role as a transportation hub and provision centre ensured its survival between the 1820s and 1880s. The fort burned to the ground after its abandonment by the HBC. No plans existed for its original layout, but, using clues from post administrators' log books and archaeological surveys, a replica was built on the site in 1980. It operates as

4015-468: The housing stock (1,630) was constructed before 1986, while 430 units were built between 1986 and 2006. The average value of owned dwellings was $ 148,083 (compared to Albertan average of $ 293,811). There were 2,060 households, of which 1,355 were considered census families in 2006, with an average of 2.8 persons per family, compared to an Alberta average of 3.0. The median incomes in 2005 were $ 41,487 per household and $ 47,853 per census family, compared to

4088-574: The loose meaning of "small village". In Mississippi , a 2009 state law (§ 17-27-5) set aside the term "municipal historical hamlet" to designate any former city, town, or village with a current population of less than 600 inhabitants that lost its charter before 1945. The first such designation was applied to Bogue Chitto, Lincoln County . In New York, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within towns . Hamlets are not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. Their approximate locations will often be noted on road signs, however,

4161-546: The mountains) or scattered (more often in the plains). In North West Germany, a group of scattered farms is called Bauerschaft . In a Weiler, there are no street names, the houses are just numbered. There is no legal definition of a hamlet in Germany. In Bavaria, like in Austria, a Weiler is defined as a settlement with 3 to 9 dwellings, from 10 houses it is called a village. A hamlet does not usually form its own administrative unit, but

4234-479: The nearest multiple of 5 by Statistics Canada . Westlock had 2,060 private dwellings occupied by usual residents in 2006. 74.8% of the occupied housing in the town was single-detached (the average in Alberta was 63.4%), while 17.7% were apartments in buildings with fewer than five storeys (14.7% in Alberta as a whole). Of the total private dwellings, there were 1,410 housing units (houses or apartments) which were owned, and 650 which were rented. The majority of

4307-425: The new plan, Fort Assiniboine on the Athabasca River (the fort was originally named 'Athabaska River House') opened in 1824. It became the northwest end of an overland 130-kilometre (80 mi) horse track to Edmonton House / Fort Edmonton , cut by Jacques Cardinal, a Métis free trader, in 1824–25. The trail became known as 'The Hudson's Bay Packtrail'. The trail shortened the distance from Jasper House and

4380-503: The park of the Château de Versailles , and the Hameau de Chantilly built by Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in Chantilly, Oise . The German word for hamlet is Weiler ( German: [ˈva͡ɪlɐ] ). A Weiler has, compared to a Dorf (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store, no church). The houses and farms of a Weiler can be grouped (in the hills and

4453-455: The road was graded to Holmes Crossing. The next year, on the north side of the river, a road was graded from the ferry landing, to a bridge on the Freeman River west of Fort Assiniboine. In 1922, the post office was moved to the settlement. The quarter-section of land on which the trading post had been situated had been homesteaded by a Dr. E.J. State in 1913. When he died in 1923, his property

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4526-431: The roads serving them). Others, such as Forestville, New York , will be the remnants of former villages, with borders coextant with the previously defined borders of the defunct or dissolved village. Some hamlets proximate to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the jurisdiction of the town. Some localities designated as hamlets, such as Levittown in

4599-776: The same house five years earlier as well. There were 310 people who had Aboriginal identity . There were 145 who reported being visible minorities . A large minority (1,385) of those residents aged 15 years and older (3,825) had no certificate, diploma, or degree. 1,100 of residents aged 15 years and older has a high school certificate or equivalent. The total workforce was 2,155 people. The most common occupations were in sales and service (660) and trades, transport and equipment operation (410). The most common industries were other services (360), health care and social services (355), and retail trade (320). Most people claimed to work in Westlock, and only (255) indicated working in another municipality. The majority (1,485) of those that had

4672-400: The site of the old fort. The Fort Assiniboine post office was set up in 1910, operated, as was the practice, from a local homestead. Joseph Brewster was the first postmaster . A blacksmith 's shop, and a store were soon built near the fort site. In 1914, the railway was built to Westlock , shortening the route on the trail significantly. The first community hall was built in 1916. By 1919,

4745-543: The town, and there are several old age homes . Westlock is too far from Edmonton to serve as a bedroom community but some people do commute. Of increasing importance to the community since the Second World War has been highway traffic heading to oilfields in Northern Alberta . Recent retail developments have shifted from the railway era downtown to larger malls and businesses along the highway. One recent proposal

4818-438: Was binding but did not reflect the views of all Westlock residents, and stated that "we will continue to find ways to embrace those in our community who need a helping hand, including marginalized groups." In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , the Town of Westlock had a population of 4,921 living in 2,151 of its 2,385 total private dwellings, a change of -3.5% from its 2016 population of 5,101. With

4891-528: Was closed in 1911 when Conservative Party came to power and fired many Liberals from the postal service . In 1911 the railway reached nearby Clyde to the east, and in 1912 the E.D. & B.C. Railway (later the Northern Alberta Railway , now part of CN ) mapped a new townsite where Westlock now stands to the west. Edison was now caught between the two. In 1914, the Methodist church building

4964-531: Was for a residential development adjoining Westlock Airport which would allow people to commute to the oilsand projects in Fort McMurray and other northern developments, but this has not been started as yet. Westlock's current MP is Arnold Viersen , representing the riding of Peace River-Westlock . In the 2015 Canadian Federal Election Westlock became part of the newly formed Peace River—Westlock federal electoral district. The MLA who represents Westlock

5037-730: Was founded as a trading post by the Hudson's Bay Company and became a stopping point along the Klondike Trail . It gets its name from the Assiniboine people. The fort itself no longer exists, but the land on which it stood is designated as a National Historic Site for its archaeological value. The hamlet, built on and around the site of the fort, is a now a local hub for the surrounding agricultural region. Local oral history tells of an early (possibly late 1700s) North West Company fur trading post south of Holmes Crossing (an early ferry crossing) on

5110-468: Was named Edgson, but this was considered too hard to pronounce. Edson, Alberta already existed, so the site was called Edison by its Irish-Canadian founders, after the American inventor Thomas Edison . The community in 1912 consisted of a total of no more than 13 buildings: a harness shop, a blacksmith shop, several homes, two churches, and one family living in a tent. There was also a post office but this

5183-400: Was picked up and moved down the road to Westlock, an indication of the new settlement's ascendancy over the older one. The name of the new town is a portmanteau of the names of William Westgate and William Lockhart, who owned the property. Westlock was incorporated as a village on 16 March 1916, with a population of 65 residents. The first reeve was George MacTavish, and in that same year,

5256-527: Was unilingually Francophone. Of the population only 385 were immigrants, the majority of those (300) having arrived in Canada before 1991. All but 55 people were Canadian citizens. Most of the Canadian-born residents were from third generation or more (2,470), or the second generation (955). The majority of the population (3,980) had lived in the same house a year earlier, and most of those (2,525) had been in

5329-456: Was willed to the University of Alberta , who surveyed and sold the lots, expanding the hamlet. In 1927 a railway line was built to Barrhead, 40 kilometres (25 mi) away. In 1934 the provincial government set up a public nursing service in the hamlet, which operated until 1969. The surrounding schools were centralized to Fort Assiniboine in 1946, and in the same year a charter was issued for

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