Westlock County is a

municipal district A municipal district is an administrative entity comprising a clearly-defined territory and its population. It can refer to a city, a town, a village, a small grouping of them, or a rural area. Brazil In Brazil, municipal districts are, in genera ...

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordere ...

, Canada that is north 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 ...

. The county was formerly known as the Municipal District of Westlock No. 92, and was created in 1943 from the merger of five smaller municipal districts.

Geography

Physiography

The county lies on the

boundary Boundary or Boundaries may refer to: * Border, in political geography Entertainment *Boundaries (2016 film), ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film *Boundaries (2018 film), ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip ...

of two of Canada's largest

drainage basins A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

. The northern and western sectors of the county are drained by the

Pembina River Pembina River may refer to: *Pembina River (Alberta), a river in central Alberta, Canada *Pembina River (Manitoba – North Dakota) The Pembina River is a tributary of the Red River of the North, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

which flows north to

meet Meet may refer to: People with the name * Janek Meet (born 1974), Estonian footballer * Meet Mukhi (born 2005), Indian child actor Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Meet'' (TV series), an early Australian television series which aired on ABC du ...

the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...

, which drains into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

via the Mackenzie River. The southern and eastern sections drain into the Sturgeon River which joins the

North Saskatchewan 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 eventua ...

and eventually empties via the

Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs before it ends in Hudson Bay. Its full length (including the Saskatchewan River and Bow River) is , it ...

into

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. A 1986 federal map shows the area as being the north-western edge of the Eastern Alberta Plains. Specifically, the county includes parts of the Edmonton Plain (and its subdivision Westlock Plain), as well as the Tawatinaw Plain, and is bounded on the northwest by the Athabasca Valley. The county also lies within the apen parkland: a transitional biome between the

boreal forest of Canada Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

to the north and the

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

to the south.

Communities and localities

The following urban municipalities are surrounded by Westlock County. ;

Cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

*none ;

Towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Westlock Westlock is a town in central Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1913, the town is primarily an agricultural, business, and government administration centre serving communities and rural areas within surrounding Westlock County. Geography Westlock i ...

;

Villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

; Summer villages * Larkspur The following

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

are located within Westlock County. ;

Hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

* Busby *

Dapp A decentralised application (DApp, dApp, Dapp, or dapp) is an application that can operate autonomously, typically through the use of smart contracts, that run on a decentralized computing, blockchain or other distributed ledger system. Like ...

* Fawcett * Jarvie * Nestow *

Pibroch Pibroch, or is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning "piping" in Scottish Gaelic, has for some f ...

* Pickardville * Tawatinaw *

Vimy Vimy ( or ; ; Dutch: ''Wimi'') is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Located east of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers ...

The following localities are located within Westlock County. ;Localities *Analta *Anton Lake *Arvilla *Deeney * Eastburg *Eunice *Fawn Lake *French Creek *Halach *Halcreek * Halfway Lake *Jeffrey *Linaria *Pembina Heights *Regal Park *

Rossington Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill. Geography Historically part of the West R ...

*Shoal Creek *Sylvan Glen *Waugh

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, Westlock County had a population of 7,186 living in 2,680 of its 3,134 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 7,220. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Westlock County had a population of 7,220 living in 2,670 of its 3,009 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 7,644. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

The municipal government consists of a reeve and six other elected

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

who work with a permanent staff of 32.

Education

The county is within the

Pembina Hills Public Schools The Pembina Hills School Division, (formerly known as Pembina Hills Regional Division No. 7 and Pembina Hills Public Schools) is a school division headquartered in Barrhead, Alberta. The division, with 16 schools having a total of about 3,700 st ...

, which formed in 1995 as a merger of three school districts.

References

External links

* {{Alberta Regions North Saskatchewan 1943 establishments in Alberta Municipal districts in Alberta