Plamondon 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 ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

, Canada within

Lac La Biche County Lac La Biche County is a List of specialized municipalities in Alberta, specialized municipality within Division No. 12, Alberta, Division No. 12 in northern Alberta, Canada. It was established through the amalgamation of the Lac La Biche, Alberta ...

. It is located on Highway 858, approximately north of

Highway 55 The following highways are numbered 55: International * European route E55 * Arab Mashreq International Road Network, Arab Mashreq route M55 Argentina * Provincial Route 55 (San Luis), San Luis Provincial Route 55 Australia * Carnarvon Highw ...

, and has an elevation of . The hamlet is located in Census Division No. 12 and in the federal riding of Fort McMurray—Cold Lake.

History

The community was founded by Joseph Plamondon in 1908 and settled by primarily French-American and

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

pioneers. Most of the families that eventually settled there came fro
Provemont
Michigan (now Lake Leelanau in Leelanau County,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

) and from French-speaking areas of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. This is mentioned in a 1991 interview with Cecelia Bussey. North of Plamondon is Rossian. Rossian is a community of

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

(Old Ritualists), a Traditionalist

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

sect whose ancestors broke from the Church after

Patriarch Nikon Nikon (, ), born Nikita Minin (; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from 1652 to 1666. He was renowned for his eloquence, energy, piety and close t ...

's reforms. The Great Schism of 1666, or ''

Raskol The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as (, , meaning 'split' or 'schism'), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the 1600s. It was triggered by the reforms of Patria ...

,'' resulted over reforms in church ritual and translation intended to better align the practices of the Russian Church with

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

practices. The Old Believers that live outside Plamondon are ''

bezpopovtsy Bespopovtsy ( rus, беспоповцы, p=bʲɪspɐˈpoftsɨ, t=priestless ones), often called Priestless Old Believers in English, are one of the two major groups of Old Believers. Unlike the Popovtsy ("priested"), the Bespopovtsy reject prie ...

'', or Priestless Old Believers, who believe that apostolic succession ended with Nikon's apostasy and therefore have no clergy and refuse the Eucharist. Most of these families moved to the area in the mid 1970s from

Woodburn, Oregon Woodburn is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. Incorporated in 1889, the community had been platted in 1871 after the arrival of the railroad. The city is located in the northern end of the Willamette Valley between Portland, Oregon, ...

, which is also home to a large Old Believer community. Many also came from

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

, China, by way of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, where they fled after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

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; ), 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 ...

, Plamondon had a population of 501 living in 195 of its 230 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 416. 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, Plamondon had a population of 348 living in 136 of its 172 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 345. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. Lac La Biche County's 2016 municipal census counted a population of 348 in Plamondon, a change from the hamlet's 2013 municipal census population of 344. Plamondon is also home for a sizable community of Russian Orthodox Old Believers.

Economy

The main industries in the region are logging and farming.

Amenities

The community has two schools, Ecole Beausejour and Ecole Plamondon School, which draw students from the entire region. École Plamondon School, offers English, French immersion, and Russian classes. École Beausejour is a francophone school, with instruction surrounding with the francophone culture. There are two hotels, two banks, post office, indoor hockey arena with artificial ice, a museum, and a rather large church. The hamlet also holds an annual French hockey tournament called Hockey en Fête. Frontenacs of University of Alberta have won twice. A Canadian Mud Racing Organization (CMRO) event is also held annually at the Plamondon Mud Bog.

Notable people

* Colin Piquette, former member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

for Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater * Leo Piquette, former member of the

for Athabasca-Lac La Biche * Clara Plamondon, Anglican bishop * Crystal Plamondon, performing artist

References