Carseland is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in
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 ...
, Canada within
Wheatland County.
It is located on
Highway 24, approximately south of
Cheadle and south of
Strathmore.
It is within
Census Division No. 5.
History
The advent of the cattlemen in the late 1800s to the Bow River country west of the Blackfoot Indian Reserve brought men like: Major General Thomas Bland Strange (1881), Charlie Hawks, Colonel Arthur Goldfinch, Felix McHugh (1886) and Colonel Arthur Wyndham (1887) to the Carseland area.
When the Military Colonization Company, which Strange had founded ceased to exist, 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 ...
(CPR) permitted free grazing on their on the north side of the Bow and it attracted many new settlers to the area.
The Addemans, Moffats and McGregors purchased the Horsetrack from the Goldfinchs and started the Horsetrack Cattle Company in 1901. Others such as Groves, Moorhouse, Brown, McHughes, McKinnon and Newbolts soon followed.
When the
open range
In the Western United States and Canada, open range is rangeland where cattle roam freely regardless of land ownership. Where there are "open range" laws, those wanting to keep animals off their property must erect a fence to keep animals out; th ...
came to an end most of the areas cattlemen became the first grain farmers of the district.
In 1903, the CPR brought irrigation to its large land acquisitions in the Carseland area.
As the land prospered and more product was being shipped by rail to market, the CPR began construction of the Gleichen/Shepard cut-off in 1913. These rails carried troops to the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1914.
Due to its proximity to the river crossing and railway, Carseland grew rapidly into a prosperous community during the 1920s through 1940s. It boasted six grain elevators, a railway station, school, general store, barber shop and pool-room, post office, restaurant, garage and
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
car dealer, well house, lumber yard, hardware store, meat market, bank, stock yards, two churches, hotel and community centre. Only three original buildings still standing on Railway Avenue are the hotel, the post office was formerly the Carseland Meat Market owned by the Bonitz family (and is now in the one strip mall) and the former hardware store - all of which were built in 1916.
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 ...
, Carseland had a population of 542 living in 218 of its 224 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 525. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
As a designated place in the
2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Carseland had a population of 525 living in 215 of its 228 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 568. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
Economy
Carseland's main employers include
Nutrien
Nutrien is a Canadian fertilizer company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It is the largest producer of potash and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in the world. It has over 2,000 retail locations across North America, South ...
,
Orica
Orica Limited () is an Australian-based multinational corporation that is one of the world's largest providers of commercial explosives and blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas, and construction markets, a supplier of sodium ...
and Stella-Jones.
See also
*
List of communities in Alberta
The province of Alberta, Canada, is divided into ten types of local governments – urban municipalities (including cities, towns, villages and summer villages), specialized municipalities, rural municipalities (including municipal district ...
*
List of designated places in Alberta
A designated place is a type of geographic unit used by Statistics Canada to disseminate census data. It is usually "a small community that does not meet the criteria used to define incorporated municipalities or Statistics Canada Population cen ...
*
List of hamlets in Alberta
Hamlets in the province of Alberta, Canada, are unincorporated communities administered by, and within the boundaries of, specialized municipalities or rural municipalities ( municipal districts, improvement districts and special areas). The ...
References
Hamlets in Alberta
Calgary Region
Wheatland County, Alberta
Designated places in Alberta
{{CalgaryRegion-geo-stub