Nordegg is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in west-central

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 T ...

, Canada within Clearwater County. It is located in the North Saskatchewan River valley in the

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

of the Canadian Rockies, 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 extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

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, staked claims covering coal deposits near the South Brazeau (now Blackstone), Bighorn, and North Saskatchewan rivers. At Nordegg's urging, Brazeau Collieries Ltd. was founded to exploit them, and the Canadian Northern Railway (which later became part of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

) 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 million yea ...

. 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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

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 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 operation was added in 1946. In 1950, a fire destroyed the tipple 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 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, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s with

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engi ...

, 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 seams. It ...

.ERCB, 1985. Coal Mine Atlas: operating and abandoned coal mines in Alberta. Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, Report Series ERCB-45, Calgary, Alberta.

Climate

Nordegg has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a 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 an ocean, g ...

( Dfc) which can be considered a subalpine 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; 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 cultu ...

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 (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du 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 ...

in 2002. 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 exchange of land between two parties, typically a private owner and a government. These parties may include farmers, estate owners, nature organizations, and governments. Land swaps may also take place between two ...

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