Bad Heart is a locality in
northern Alberta, Canada within the
County of Grande Prairie No. 1. It is approximately northeast of
Grande Prairie.
Bad Heart was formed around the Bad Heart School District, established on November 6, 1928 for the northeast part of the county.
The name "Bad Heart" appears to be "a translation of the
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
word "maatsiti" or "missipi". G.M. Dawson of the
Geological Survey of Canada also referred to it in 1879 as Wicked River. Either one of these names may refer to the narrow 125 m-high canyon through which the river flows along its winding route, or the name might have spiritual significance."
On July 18, 1929, a post office was approved in the home of R.J. Magee in the community.
Bad Heart is also the location of the Bad Heart Straw Church, a national historic site. In the 1950s, this church was built of
straw bale
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
s by Father Francis Dales, a Redemptorist priest stationed at
Sexsmith, Alberta
Sexsmith is a town in northern Alberta, it is on Highway 2, north of Grande Prairie.
Sexsmith is located in the Peace River Country region of Alberta, one of the most fertile growing areas in the province. The town was once known as the "grain ...
.
After the one-room school burned down
in 1948, the Bad Heart school district was split into North and South Bad Heart, but in 1955 both were consolidated to Teepee Creek.
The post office closed in 1968
but the Straw Church remains in place as an historic site.
References
{{reflist
Localities in the County of Grande Prairie No. 1