New Norway is a hamlet located in
central Alberta, Canada within
Camrose County
Camrose County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Census Division 10, around the City of Camrose.
Geography Communities and localities
The following urban municipalities are surrounded by Camrose Cou ...
.
Named in 1895, it is located on
Highway 21, approximately southeast of
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
and southwest of
Camrose.
New Norway is home to a number of small businesses, and has an elementary and secondary school, local fire protection and municipal services provided by Camrose County.
History
In 1892, travelling first on the newly constructed
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) line, the Ole M. Olstad family disembarked in
Wetaskiwin and made their way to the
Duhamel settlement, which had been established for some years. The family quickly filed
homestead
Homestead may refer to:
*Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses
*Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres
*Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...
s a few miles south for themselves and several relatives and friends in the United States. In addition they purchased available CPR land for $3.00 per
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
($7.41/
ha).
For a time the area was known as the "Olstead District". However, as other
Norwegian families (along with those of other nationalities) settled in the area, the name changed to New Norway around 1895. By 1903 the fledgling community had a school, general store, and a
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
shop to its credit.
In the fall of 1909, in anticipation of the new
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 ...
rail line being built nearby, the community was moved (by the use of skids and seven
oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...
) to its present location NW-11-45-21-W4 (see
Dominion Land Survey). According to the ''
Camrose Canadian
The ''Camrose Canadian'' was a local news publication for the Camrose, Alberta area. Founded in 1908, the paper was one of many Alberta publications owned by Postmedia Network. On June 26, 2018, Postmedia announced that the newspaper would cease ...
'', the townsite of New Norway was put on sale October 14, 1909, with 14 businesses filing intent to establish within the first month. Commercial lots sold from $100 to $250, and residential lots were priced from $50 to $150.
New Norway incorporated as a village on May 6, 1910,
and its first council was elected on May 9, 1910 with Norman M. Smith, James F. Willows and Evan O. Olstad serving.
Over a century later, the Village of New Norway was dissolved to hamlet status under the jurisdiction of Camrose County effective November 1, 2012.
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
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 ...
, New Norway had a population of 307 living in 129 of its 138 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 320. 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, New Norway had a population of 320 living in 126 of its 136 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 278. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
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 former urban municipalities in Alberta
*
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
:* ''Memory Opens the Door - New Norway and District 1972''. (Local History book, no ISBN)
{{coord, 52, 52, 09.0, N, 112, 57, 18.1, W, scale:60000, display=title
2012 disestablishments in Alberta
Camrose County
Designated places in Alberta
Former villages in Alberta
Hamlets in Alberta
Populated places disestablished in 2012
Norwegian Canadian settlements