Beiseker is a village in the Canadian

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, approximately northeast of

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. It is considered to be an outermost part of the

Calgary Region The Calgary Metropolitan Region (CMR), also commonly referred to as the Calgary Region, is a conglomeration of municipalities centred on Calgary, the largest city in Alberta. With the Government of Alberta's establishment of the Calgary Metropol ...

, and is included within Calgary's

Census Metropolitan Area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...

(CMA). The village is surrounded by rural

Rocky View County Rocky View County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada that is named for its views of the nearby Rocky Mountains to the west. It surrounds most of Calgary, forming the city's northern boundary and most of the city's western and e ...

, and the closest neighbouring communities are

Irricana Irricana is a town in the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. Surrounded by Rocky View County, it is adjacent to Highway 9, approximately northeast of Calgary. The name of the town is a contraction of the words "irrigation canals", ...

, Kathyrn, and

Acme Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...

History

Lying in a belt of rich black soil, Beiseker was developed as an agricultural service centre. It was founded by the Calgary Colonization Company, whose purpose was to promote settlement by demonstrating the grain-growing potential of the area. The village's name came from Thomas Lincoln Beiseker (1866-1941), a partner and vice president of the company. Initial colonization took place in 1908 when the company recruited a number of ethnic

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

settlers from the Great Plains of the Dakotas. This is reflected in the number of German family names which predominate the area. The village began to grow in 1910 when the branch line of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

was completed. In 1910, the first general store was opened in a large two-story building which housed the school and dance hall. The

Grand Trunk Pacific The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

line - now owned by

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

- was constructed in 1912 to the east of the central business district. Telephone arrived in 1912 and electricity in 1928. With the construction and intersection of Highways 9, 72 and 806 at the northeast edge of the village, Beiseker came to have a very favourable location in terms of road and rail access. Since it is located almost equidistant from

and

Drumheller Drumheller is a town on the Red Deer River in the badlands of Central Alberta, east-central Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Calgary and south of Stettler, Alberta, Stettler. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often ref ...

, Beiseker began to emerge as a local service and trade centre for the surrounding rural agricultural area. Village status was achieved in 1921. The surrounding area's great potential for grain-growing is shown by Beiseker's status as " World Wheat King Capital", or as a top producing area of wheat.

Infrastructure

Beiseker Community School is located in the village. It is part of the

Rocky View Schools Rocky View School Division No. 41 or Rocky View Schools (RVS) is the public school authority that serves students to the west, north and east of the City of Calgary in the province of Alberta. The original board's name was called Calgary Rural Sc ...

system, and teaches from kindergarten to grade 12. The village is also home to

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

congregations. As Beiseker is at the intersection of three provincial highways, and equipped with a campground and motel, it is a popular stop for campers and other travellers coming to and from

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

and

. There is also a small airport which serves the community, located a five kilometres east of town along Alberta Highway 9.

Economy

Beiseker currently serves as a centre for local agricultural services including fertilizer, seed cleaning, and soil testing. There is a local

UFA Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...

outlet, and a Canadian Malting Co.

grain elevator A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits ...

serving farmers in the area. Local industries serve the

oilpatch The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest ...

, and there are many sites extracting

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in the immediate area surrounding Beiseker, as well as several major pipelines. Beiseker also has a number of small businesses on its main street offering a variety of services, including a local

credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...

, grocery store,

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

and hair dressers, as well as several small restaurants. The Canadian office of

Lampson International Lampson International is a crane manufacturer located in Kennewick, Washington established in 1946 by Neil F. Lampson. ( Lampson Stadium in Kennewick is named after this same man.) Lampson operates one of the largest crane fleets in the United St ...

, a large international company specializing in construction cranes, is based in Beiseker.

Notable people

''William Samuel McGee'' (b 1868, Lindsay,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

- d 1940, Beiseker) lived for several years on a farm with his wife and daughter just outside Beiseker and is buried in the area. His name was to be the inspiration for the poem

The Cremation of Sam McGee "The Cremation of Sam McGee" is among the most famous of Robert W. Service's (1874–1958) poems. It was published in 1907 in ''Songs of a Sourdough''. (A "sourdough", in this sense, is a resident of the Yukon.) It concerns the cremation of a ...

Robert W. Service Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer, often called "the Bard of the Yukon". The middle name 'William' was in honour of a rich uncle. When that uncle neglected to provide for hi ...

Arts and culture

Several locations in and around Beiseker were featured in the filming of

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

's Academy Award-winning film ''

Brokeback Mountain ''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by O ...

'', including the site of the 'Twist Ranch' that figures importantly in the penultimate scene of the film. In 2016, Beiseker was selected as a filming location for the third season of

FX Network FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content unit of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX originally launch ...

's show Fargo, as well as an episode of TBS's series The Detour. In 2018, Beiseker hosted the production for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series

Black Summer ''Black Summer'' is a comic book limited series written by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Juan Jose Ryp, and published by Avatar Press starting in June 2007. The plot revolves around the consequences of a superhero, John Horus, who kills the Pres ...

. In 2019, Beiseker hosted on-location shooting for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Mascot

In the early 1990s, the Village of Beiseker began promoting itself with the mascot, "Squirt the Skunk", which included promotional items such as pins and postcards. A "Squirt the Skunk" statue, in height, was erected in the campground near Highway 72. In addition, a "Squirt the Skunk" costume was made so the mascot may appear at village events.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, the Village of Beiseker had a population of 754 living in 314 of its 333 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 819. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Village of Beiseker recorded a population of 819 living in 331 of its 338 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 785. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1921 establishments in Alberta Calgary Region Rocky View County Villages in Alberta