Forestburg is a village located in east-central
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. The rich farmland of the area was first settled in 1905. Soon after the first of many "gopher hole" mines, homesteaders were soon
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
on the banks of the
Battle River in 1907.
Forestburg's economy is based on agriculture, coal mining, oil and gas activity, and power generation. With approximately 75 businesses, the rate of employment is good. Forestburg has a good variety of retail and services, with major employment by
Atco Power Ltd. and
Westmoreland Coal. The village is the headquarters of the
Battle River Railway
The Battle River Railway is a co-operative shortline freight railway created in 2010 in central Alberta. The track is 236 foot-continually welded track. It serves the communities of Alliance, Galahad, Forestburg, Heisler, Rosalind, Kelsey, p ...
, a co-operative railway established in 2009.
[http://www.battleriverrailway.ca/contacts.html]
History
The site was surveyed in 1919 after the
Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
Mani ...
arrived in 1916, and Forestburg was incorporated into a village.
File:Forestburg, Alberta (circa 1930s).jpg, Forestburg, 1930s
Geography
Climate
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 Forestburg had a population of 807 living in 373 of its 417 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 880. 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 Forestburg recorded a population of 875 living in 360 of its 404 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 831. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
The population of the Village of Forestburg according to its
2014 municipal census is 880,
a change from its 2011 federal census population of 831.
Notable people
*
Evan Oberg
Evan Oberg (born February 16, 1988) is a Canadian retired ice hockey defenceman. He played 7 games in the National Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning between 2010 and 2012. The rest of his career, which lasted from 2 ...
, professional hockey player
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 villages in Alberta
A village is an urban municipality status type used in the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta villages are created when communities with populations of at least 300 people, where a majority of their buildings are on parcels of land smaller ...
References
External links
*
{{Subdivisions of Alberta, villages=yes
1919 establishments in Alberta
Flagstaff County
Villages in Alberta