Hardisty is a town in Flagstaff County in east-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately from the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

border, near the crossroads of Highway 13 and Highway 881, in the Battle River Valley. Hardisty is mainly known as a pivotal

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of hydrocarbon exploration, exploration, extraction of petroleum, extraction, oil refinery, refining, Petroleum transport, transportation (of ...

hub where petroleum products such as Western Canada Select blended crude oil and Hardisty heavy oil are produced and traded.

History

The Town of Hardisty was named after Senator

Richard Hardisty Richard Charles Hardisty (3 March 1831 – 18 October 1889) was a Hudson's Bay Company official at Edmonton and a politician in the Northwest Territories, Canada. He married Eliza McDougall on 21 September 1866 while he was a Hudson's Bay Co ...

. It began in 1906 as a hamlet, and officially became a town in 1911. The first people known to have lived in the Battle River Valley were the native First Nations. This country was the wintering grounds for thousands of buffalo, moose, elk and deer, which attracted these people to the area. The Town of Hardisty owes its existence to 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 Canad ...

. About 1904 the surveyors began to survey the railroad from the east and decided to locate a divisional point at Hardisty because of the good water supply from the nearby Battle River. Although this was a trading centre as early as 1904, it became a boom town by 1906, spawned by the influx of workers who were building the CPR. By the fall of 1906 the rail line reached Hardisty from Daysland. Then began the task of building the bridge, a task which took about three years. Settlers also began arriving in large numbers. During 1906 to 1907, Hardisty was referred to as a tent town because people lived in tents until lumber could be hauled in. Business places sprang up overnight and, as with many towns, they were built along the railroad track.Town of Hardisty
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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 Hardisty had a population of 548 living in 247 of its 382 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 554. 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 Hardisty recorded a population of 554 living in 254 of its 401 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 639. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Economy

The main industries in and around Hardisty are

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

and

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

. There is a large

" tank farm" near Hardisty, which is also a nexus of oil pipelines. The oil industry in Hardisty focuses primarily on transport rather than oil processing or collection. Some of the

companies are:

Gibson Energy Gibsons is a Canada-based midstream oilfield service company in the oil and gas industry. Its assets include pipelines, oil storage facilities, as well as a refinery in Moose Jaw. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. History Gibsons w ...

, Enbridge, EnCana Corporation, and many others. Hardisty is the start of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which is intended to transport synthetic crude oil, blended crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands to refineries in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Attractions

Hardisty Lake Park is located within the town limits and has camping, swimming, boating, trout fishing, golfing, baseball diamonds, rodeos and sporting events. Hardisty also has a soccer field, a curling rink, a hockey rink, and cross-country skiing. The Hardisty area is also known for upland game, geese, duck, mule deer and whitetail deer hunting.

Education

Hardisty's school is named Allan Johnstone School, and teaches kindergarten and Grades 1 to 9. This school was shut down in 2020 with students now needing to attend schools in neighbouring areas. High school students (Grades 10 to 12), are taken by bus to Sedgewick. There is also a playschool in Hardisty.

Television

Paperny Films taped the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show '' The Week The Women Went'' in Hardisty from June 2 to June 9, 2007. It aired on CBC in Canada for eight consecutive weeks starting January 21, 2008. The show explored what happens when all the women in an ordinary Canadian town disappear for a week and leave the men and children to cope on their own.

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of Alberta, towns=yes 1906 establishments in Alberta Flagstaff County Towns in Alberta