Didsbury is a town in

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordered ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogr ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

. It is located next to

Alberta Highway 2A Alberta Provincial Highway No. 2A is the designation of six alternate routes off Highway 2 in Alberta, Canada. In general, these are original sections of Highway 2, such as the southern portion of Macleod Trail in Calgary. They passed through ...

, near the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. Didsbury is within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor. Didsbury is approximately the half-way point between the cities of Calgary and

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

. Didsbury is surrounded by

Mountain View County Mountain View County is a municipal district in Division No. 6 in central Alberta, Canada. Located between the cities of Calgary and Red Deer within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, its municipal office is located north of the Town of Didsbury. ...

, which has its municipal office located to the north of the town. The nearest neighbouring communities are the towns of

Olds Olds may refer to: People * The olds, a jocular and irreverent online nickname for old age, older adults * Bert Olds (1891–1953), Australian rules footballer * Carl D. Olds (1912–1979), New Zealand-born American mathematician * Chauncey N. Old ...

to the north and

Carstairs Carstairs (, Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Tarrais'') is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Carstairs is located east of the county town of Lanark and the West Coast Main Line runs through the village. The village is served by Carstairs r ...

to the south.

History

The town is named after the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

of Didsbury, now a suburban area of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. The first settlers were German

Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

who left their homes in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

following the American Revolution and emigrated Waterloo County in Ontario. They were granted the area around Didsbury in 1894 by the government of Sir John A. Macdonald. Original settlement in the area was sparse, and this in part explains the initial slow development of the town-site as a service centre. The first concern of the Mennonite settlers was to build a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

; and the primary task of the settlers was to create

farmsteads A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

. Settlement prior to the post-1900 land rush was limited to the small group who came west in 1894. 1897 saw the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which pushed forward the town's development. The CPR constructed a station in the town in 1904. Didsbury was incorporated as a village in 1905 and as a town on September 6, 1906. Fires in 1914 and 1924 destroyed the early "

boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

" commercial streetscape and led to the passing by Town Council of a bylaw which required masonry construction for all new downtown commercial buildings. Many of these brick buildings stand today.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Didsbury had a population of 5,070 living in 2,047 of its 2,157 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 5,268. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Didsbury recorded a population of 5,268 living in 2,031 of its 2,119 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 4,957. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Infrastructure

The town's recreational facilities include six parks, a golf course, aquatic centre, and a hockey rink. There is also a hospital and a

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

detachment serving the town and the surrounding area. Didsbury has three schools that are under the jurisdiction of the Chinook's Edge School Division. The Olds-Didsbury Airport, which is used primarily for small aircraft and

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

, is located north of Didsbury along Highway 2A.

Media

The town is served by the ''

Didsbury Review Didsbury is a suburban area of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there are ...

'', which is part of the

Great West Newspapers Great West Media Limited Partnership is a Canadian publisher of weekly newspapers in the province of Alberta. It is headquartered in St. Albert, Alberta. The company is jointly owned by Glacier Media, a Vancouver-based publisher, and the local f ...

chain.Didsbury Review Newspaper site
/ref>

Sport and recreation

Didsbury is home to the Mountainview Colts of the

Heritage Junior B Hockey League Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

Organizations

Organizations present in Didsbury include the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and the 1st Didsbury

Scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

, Didsbury

Jazzercise Jazzercise is a fitness franchise company founded by Judi Sheppard Missett in 1968 and headquartered in Carlsbad, California, United States. The franchise's name is a portmanteau of "jazz" and "exercise". Jazzercise combines dance aerobics ...

, as well as the

Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

and

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

clubs.

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of Alberta, towns=yes 1901 establishments in the Northwest Territories Mountain View County Towns in Alberta