Alberta Beach is a village in
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 bordered ...
, Canada, west 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 ...
. It is located on the southeast shore of
Lac Ste. Anne, approximately west of
Highway 43 and north of
Highway 633.
Alberta Beach's economy it is centred on tourism and recreation. The village is the site of the
Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage, an event having key significance to Aboriginal people, including Cree, Dene, Blackfoot and Métis Roman Catholics. It is also notable as being one 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 ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
's main cottage weekend retreats.
Alberta Beach is the only
urban municipality (city, town, village, and summer village) in Alberta that does not include its municipal status in its official legal name.
Its official name is simply ''Alberta Beach'' instead of ''Village of Alberta Beach'' like the convention used by other urban municipalities.
[ Alberta Beach changed from this convention at the time it changed its municipal status from summer village to village on January 1, 1999.]
History
In 1912 the Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic 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 Edmonton.
Man ...
built its Edmonton–Vancouver line through what is now Alberta Beach. It brought its employees out for company picnics and holidays. By 1920 the area had incorporated as a summer village,Woodward's
Woodward's Stores Ltd. was a department store chain that operated in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, for 101 years, before its sale to the Hudson's Bay Company.
History
Charles Woodward established the first Woodward store at the corner o ...
then began to bring their employees out for the same relaxing and beautiful atmosphere.
There was such a demand for this atmosphere that the ''Moonlight Express'' was started. The railway picked people up in Edmonton on Saturday mornings, took them to Alberta Beach, then picked them up Sunday night to take them back to Edmonton.
Soon people began purchasing and building their own cabins and small businesses. On January 1, 1999, the summer village of Alberta Beach became a village.[ It now has 884 year-round residents and can swell to over 3,000 people during long weekends.]
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, Alberta Beach had a population of 864 living in 417 of its 743 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,018. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
See also
*List of communities in Alberta
The province of Alberta, Canada, is divided into ten types of Local government in Canada, local governments – urban municipalities (including List of cities in Alberta, cities, List of towns in Alberta, towns, List of villages in Alberta, vil ...
* List of villages in Alberta
References
External links
*
{{Subdivisions of Alberta, villages=yes
1920 establishments in Alberta
Lac Ste. Anne County
Villages in Alberta
Former summer villages in Alberta