Sexsmith is a town in

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 cen ...

, it is on Highway 2, north of

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in northwest Alberta, Canada within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) and Highway 40 (the Bighorn Highway), a ...

. Sexsmith is located in the

Peace River Country The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; french: Région de la Rivière-de-la-paix) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia ...

region of Alberta, one of the most fertile growing areas in the province. The town was once known as the "grain capital of the British Empire": In a 10-year period from 1939 to 1949, it shipped more grain than any other port in the empire.

History

The townsite of Sexsmith was established on the homestead of Benny Foster, a 1911 settler, and was originally named "Bennville" or "Benville", but it was discovered that the name had already used by another town, so it was renamed Sexsmith after a local trapper who came to the area in 1898. The railway arrived in 1916, and grain companies began building grain elevators in 1917. Because of the fertile soil, the area is one of the largest grain producing areas in the world, and by 1949 became the Grain Capital of the British Empire, shipping more grain than any other region.

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 Sexsmith had a population of 2,427 living in 853 of its 929 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 2,620. 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 Sexsmith recorded a population of 2,620 living in 873 of its 937 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 2,418. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Economy

Ovintiv Ovintiv Inc. is a hydrocarbon exploration and production company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Denver, United States. It was founded and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, under its previous name Encana. It was the largest energy co ...

owns an oil and natural gas liquid processing plant with a total capacity of 115,000 barrels per day, from wells drilled into the Montney Formation.

Sports

Education

Sexsmith has three schools: *Robert W. Zahara Public School *

Sexsmith Secondary School Sexsmith Secondary School is the only public secondary school in Sexsmith, Alberta, and is part of the Peace Wapiti School Division No. 76 Peace Wapiti Public School Division No. 76 or Peace Wapiti Public School Division is a public school au ...

*St. Mary's Catholic School Sexsmith is also the home of a post-secondary institution: *

Peace River Bible Institute The Peace River Bible Institute is a degree-granting college recognized by the province of Alberta. PBRI's Bachelor of Religious Education course was recognized after its establishment in the 1980s by the American Association of Bible Colleges. Th ...

Notable people

References

External links

* {{Alberta Regions Upper Peace 1929 establishments in Alberta Towns in Alberta