Caroline, Alberta

Caroline is a hamlet in central Alberta, Canada that is under the jurisdiction of Clearwater County. It held village status prior to 2025. Caroline is southwest of Red Deer.

Summary

With 514 residents as of 2024, the hamlet of Caroline is in the County of Clearwater. An agricultural and commercial center for the surrounding region, Caroline serves tourists on Highway 54 going to the neighbouring Rocky Mmountains. The hamlet's commercial sector serves the southeast portion of Clearwater County with services including a motel, gas station, restaurants, a saloon, food stores, souvenir stores, and a large supply store for camping and hunting.

Caroline is home to a regional fire service and hall, a K-12 school, a two-day per week medical clinic, ambulance service, before- and after-school care, playschool, independent living retirement units, and a senior centre. Recent renovations have been made to the Kurt Browning Arena & Community Hall.

Attractions in the hamlet include the Caroline Wheels of Time Museum, the Caroline Farmers' Market, the Caroline Community Garden, the Caroline Community HUB, and the mural project of the general store. On May long weekend 2025, the local Bighorn Stampede celebrated its 89th anniversary. According to promotional materials, "The Stampede starts on Friday and continues to Sunday night. The weekend includes rodeo, a pancake breakfast on Main Street, a Christian Cowboy Church on Sunday morning and beer gardens every night. The exciting Parade continues along Caroline Main Street on Saturday morning."

History

The community is named after Caroline Langley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Langley. The family opened the community's original post office in 1908.

Caroline incorporated as a village on December 31, 1951. On January 1, 2025, the Village of Caroline amalgamated with Clearwater County and became a hamlet in the new municipality.

Historic schools

Early schools in the Caroline area were pioneer structures with rudimentary facilities, often made from rough-hewn logs and staffed with teachers barely out of eighth grade themselves. The highlights of the buildings included "green wood" chalkboards, wood stoves, chemical toilets, an occasional coat hall, and after the earliest years, well water. Before that water was drawn by students from nearby waterways like the Raven River. In many schools, students did janitor work, teachers taught classes of 12 to 40 students with each grade included, and school fairs and Christmas programs were popular events. Dances "and other forms of entertainment" were held in the buildings, too.

According to local historians, there have been many schools in the present-day Caroline School District. Between 1958 and 1961, many of these districts were consolidated with Caroline, while others were consolidated with the Rocky Mountain School Division. Before consolidation, it was rare for students in these schools to attend high school because they were not common. If students got to attend grades 10-12, they were sent to residential boarding schools with tuition.

The historic schools that once existed in the Caroline area included:
* Big Bend School
* Caroline School,
* Cheddarville School, opened in 1917 for grades 1-9 and closed in 1963. According to one source, Cheddarville was the eighth school opened in the Caroline School District.
* Clear Creek School, opened in 1910 and closed in 1960
* Crammond School, opened in 1926 for grades 1-9 and closed in 1965
* Crooked Creek School, opened in 1911 and closed in 1956
* Dovercourt School, opened in 1917 for grades 1-8 and closed in 1954
* Hazeldell School, opened in 1929 and closed in 1959
* James River School
* North Caroline School, opened in 1936 and closed in 1954
* Pine View School, opened in 1908
* Ricinus School, opened in 1917 and closed after 1950
* Shillo School, opened in 1910 and closed in 1952. This building was designated an Alberta Historic Site in 2011.
* South Caroline School
* South Fork School, opened in 1908 and closed in 1941. This was the first school in Caroline.
* Wooler School, opened in 1914

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Village of Caroline had a population of 470 living in 219 of its 246 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 512. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Village of Caroline recorded a population of 512 living in 233 of its 259 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 501. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Notable people

* Kurt Browning, world champion figure skater
* Kris Russell, professional ice hockey player
* Ryan Russell, professional ice hockey player
* Jim Vandermeer, professional ice hockey player
* Pete Vandermeer, former professional ice hockey player

Economy

In the mid-1980s a large natural gas field valued at $10 billion was discovered nearby. It was named Caroline for the community, and subsequently developed by Shell. The gas is sour with about 35% hydrogen sulfide. The sulfur is extracted from the gas and piped in liquid form to a plant at Shantz, about southeast, where is it made into solid pellets and exported via a spur line of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway. In 2019, Shell sold the field and processing plant to Pieridae Energy.

See also

*List of communities in Alberta
*List of hamlets in Alberta

References

External links

*

{{Subdivisions of Alberta, hamlets=yes

1951 establishments in Alberta
2025 disestablishments in Alberta
Clearwater County, Alberta
Former villages in Alberta
Hamlets in Alberta