Watino is a
hamlet in
northern Alberta, Canada within
Birch Hills County.
It is located on
Highway 49, approximately northeast of
Grande Prairie, and has an elevation of .
History
Watino was established on the banks of the
Smoky River
The Smoky River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the Peace River. The descriptive name refers to the presence of "smouldering beds of coal in the riverbank" noted by the Cree Indians.
It drains an area of . Fro ...
, downstream from its confluence with the
Little Smoky River
The Little Smoky River is a tributary of the Smoky River in west-central Alberta, Canada.
Course
The river originates in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, west of Grande Cache and flows in a north-east direction throughout the foothills. ...
. The name Watino is derived from the Cree word "Wa-ye-te-naw", meaning "valley".
When the
Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway began to construct a railway bridge over the Smoky River in 1915, two temporary hamlets sprang up on either side of the river. On the east bank was the main railway camp, called Pruden's Crossing, and on the west, connected by a small cable ferry, was the hamlet of Smoky River, or "Old Smoky".
The railway bridge was erected in 1916, and a railway siding situated on the west bank. It was here that Carl Donis opened the first post office, named Prudens Crossing, in 1917.
The community was renamed Watino in 1921, and the post office name changed to the same in November 1925 .
Eventually Watino contained a school, two grocery stores, two hardware stores, post office, three machine agencies, garage, grain elevator, restaurant, pool hall, community hall, and skating rink .
There was also a railway station, a pump station, and coal dock for the steam trains, and stockyards on the railway, from which Egg Lake Ranch shipped 13 carloads of cattle to Chicago in 1920.
The railway was the main mode of transportation until 1938, when the bush trail into the community was replaced by a highway and a connecting ferry over the Smoky River.
In 1950, the establishment of the Park Brothers sawmill and planer made Watino boom.
Watino declined in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972, the Smoky River flooded, washing away much farmland in the valley, and in 1975 the grain elevator was removed.
In 1987 another flood caused heavy damage to the east and west sides of the railroad bridge and forcing the closure of the CNR train system through Watino.
Demographics
Watino recorded a population of 22 in the
1991 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 ...
.
[
]
See also
* List of communities in Alberta
*List of hamlets in Alberta
Hamlets in the province of Alberta, Canada, are unincorporated communities administered by, and within the boundaries of, specialized municipalities or rural municipalities ( municipal districts, improvement districts and special areas). The ...
References
Birch Hills County
Hamlets in Alberta
{{NorthernAlberta-geo-stub