Nordegg is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in west-central

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada within Clearwater County. It is in the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

valley in the

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

of the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

, just east of the intersection of the David Thompson Highway and the Highway 734 spur of the Bighorn Highway (the Forestry Trunk Road). A former

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

town, it was named after Martin Nordegg and the name probably means "North Corner" in a German dialect. The railway station name at the locality was called ''Brazeau'' rather than ''Nordegg'' at certain points in its history, but the local post office has always been named ''Nordegg''. The name ''Brazeau'' is now obsolete.

History

In 1907, Martin Cohn (who later changed his surname to Nordegg) of the German Development Company, working with D.B. Dowling of the

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; , CGC) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Science ...

, staked claims covering coal deposits near the South Brazeau (now Blackstone),

Bighorn The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns may weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspeci ...

, and North Saskatchewan rivers. At Nordegg's urging, Brazeau Collieries Ltd. was founded to exploit them, and the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, 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 Edmonto ...

(which later became part of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

) agreed to build a rail line to the northern part of the area. This led to the founding of the coal-mining town of Nordegg. A small camp was established at the future townsite in 1911, coal production began in earnest in 1912, and the rail line, known as the Brazeau Branch, arrived at the town in 1913. Prior to that time, the Nordegg area was accessible only by

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

. In 1914, the town was founded as one of the first planned communities in Alberta and it was named in honor of Martin Nordegg's efforts by railway entrepreneur William Mackenzie. When

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out, German assets in Canada were frozen. Martin Nordegg was permitted to remain at the town and supervise operations, but in the summer of 1915 he was asked to leave Canada. He was allowed to return in 1921, but he had lost his position with the mine. The coal at Nordegg is part of the Gates Formation of the Luscar Group. Of the five coal seams at Nordegg, two were mined: the No. 2 and No. 3 Seams, which averaged and thick, respectively. They were separated by about of rock. They dipped at an angle of 12° and were worked by underground

room and pillar Room and pillar or pillar and stall is a variant of breast stoping. It is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane, creating horizontal arrays of rooms and pillars. To do this, "rooms" of ore are dug out wh ...

methods. Production peaked at in 1923, and the labor force at that time was about 800. Five small briquetting plants were added to the operation in 1937 to produce a marketable product from powdery, fine coal. On 31 October 1941, a large underground explosion in the No. 3 Mine killed 29 miners. Mining resumed six weeks later, and during 1942 the Nordegg mine was one of the top coal-producing mines in Alberta. The town reached a maximum population of about 2,500 in the early 1940s, and a

surface mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in whic ...

operation was added in 1946. In 1950, a fire destroyed the

tipple A tipple is a structure used at a mine to load the extracted product (e.g., coal, ores) for transport, typically into railroad hopper cars. In the United States, tipples have been frequently associated with coal mines, but they have also been us ...

and five wooden briquetting plants. A new, more modern briquetting plant was then built of metal. It began operation at the end of 1951 but a large government debt had been incurred for its construction. Coal markets declined, primarily due to the decreasing use of

steam coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is a type of f ...

as railroads replaced

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s with diesel, and Brazeau Collieries closed permanently in 1955. Most people left after the mine closed, although a few families stayed on. The coal reserves at Nordegg had not been exhausted, but mining never resumed. Total production had been about 9.6 million tonnes of low- to medium-volatile

bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the coal seam, ...

Climate

Nordegg has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

( Dfc) which can be considered a

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

climate due to its altitude with locations on the same latitude having warmer climates. Summers are mild, with a few warm days sprinkled in here and there, while winters are cold and snowy.

Demographics

Nordegg recorded a population of 53 in the 1986 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

Attractions

Most of the surface coal handling, processing and support facilities at Nordegg are still standing. They were declared a Provincial Historic Resource in 1992, and a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

in 2001. There are guided tours of the surface facilities during the summer months. Tours of the underground mine workings are not possible because most of the tunnels have collapsed. A stretch of about into the entrances of the No. 2 and No. 3 Mines has been restored and can be entered, but beyond that the entries are blocked. A

land exchange A land exchange or land swap is the ''voluntary'' exchange of land between two parties, typically a private owner and a government. These parties may include farmers, estate owners, developers, nature organizations, and governments. Land swaps may a ...

with the Province of Alberta has stimulated redevelopment of Nordegg. A mountain acreage community, the North Nordegg Subdivision, is developing north of Highway 11, adjacent to the Shunda Creek Hostel. Clearwater County has released plans for the redevelopment of downtown Nordegg, much of it on the footprint of the original townsite.

References

* ''When Coal Was King: The Brazeau Collieries Operation at Nordegg, Alberta''. Compiled by Anne (McMullen) Belliveau for the Nordegg Historical Society. 2001.

External links