Hardisty is a town in

Flagstaff County Flagstaff County is a municipal district in east central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Census Division 7. The county was incorporated in the current boundaries in 1944 as ''Municipal District of Killam No. 390'', name changed a year later ...

in east-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately from the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

border, near the crossroads of

Highway 13 The following roads may be referred to as Route 13 or Highway 13. For a list of roads named A13, see List of A13 roads. International * Asian Highway 13 * European route E13 * European route E013 Afghanistan *The Kabul–Behsud Highway - ...

and Highway 881, in the Battle River Valley. Hardisty is mainly known as a pivotal

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...

hub where petroleum products such as

Western Canada Select Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams and, historically, its cheapest. It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cen ...

blended crude oil and Hardisty heavy oil are produced and traded.

History

The Town of Hardisty was named after Senator Richard Hardisty. It began in 1906 as a hamlet, and officially became a town in 1911. The first people known to have lived in the Battle River Valley were the native

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

. This country was the wintering grounds for thousands of buffalo, moose, elk and deer, which attracted these people to the area. The Town of Hardisty owes its existence to the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

. About 1904 the surveyors began to survey the railroad from the east and decided to locate a

divisional point In Canada, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the location of facilities and in ...

at Hardisty because of the good water supply from the nearby Battle River. Although this was a trading centre as early as 1904, it became a boom town by 1906, spawned by the influx of workers who were building the CPR. By the fall of 1906 the rail line reached Hardisty from Daysland. Then began the task of building the bridge, a task which took about three years. Settlers also began arriving in large numbers. During 1906 to 1907, Hardisty was referred to as a tent town because people lived in tents until lumber could be hauled in. Business places sprang up overnight and, as with many towns, they were built along the railroad track.Town of Hardisty
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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 ...

, the Town of Hardisty had a population of 548 living in 247 of its 382 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 554. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Hardisty recorded a population of 554 living in 254 of its 401 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 639. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Economy

The main industries in and around Hardisty are

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

and

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. There is a large

tank farm Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Geology Part of the Auckland volcanic field, it was crea ...

" near Hardisty, which is also a nexus of oil pipelines. The oil industry in Hardisty focuses primarily on transport rather than oil processing or collection. Some of the

companies are: Gibson Energy,

Enbridge Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

EnCana Corporation Ovintiv Inc. is a hydrocarbon exploration and production company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Denver, United States. It was founded and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, under its previous name Encana. It was the largest energy c ...

, and many others. Hardisty is the start of the proposed

Keystone XL Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta ...

, which is intended to transport

synthetic crude oil Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil upgrader facility used in connection with oil sand production. It may also refer to shale oil, an output from an oil shale pyrolysis. The properties of the synthetic crude depend on t ...

, blended crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands to refineries in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Attractions

Hardisty Lake Park is located within the town limits and has camping, swimming, boating, trout fishing, golfing, baseball diamonds, rodeos and sporting events. Hardisty also has a soccer field, a curling rink, a hockey rink, and cross-country skiing. The Hardisty area is also known for upland game, geese, duck, mule deer and whitetail deer hunting.

Education

Hardisty's school is named Allan Johnstone School, and teaches kindergarten and Grades 1 to 9. This school was shut down in 2020 with students now needing to attend schools in neighbouring areas. High school students (Grades 10 to 12), are taken by bus to Sedgewick. There is also a playschool in Hardisty.

Television

Paperny Films Paperny Entertainment Inc. (previously known as Paperny Films) was a Vancouver-based producer of television programming and films, ranging from character-driven documentaries to provocative comedy to quirky reality shows. It was founded by David ...

taped the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show '' The Week The Women Went'' in Hardisty from June 2 to June 9, 2007. It aired on CBC in Canada for eight consecutive weeks starting January 21, 2008. The show explored what happens when all the women in an ordinary Canadian town disappear for a week and leave the men and children to cope on their own.

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of Alberta, towns=yes 1906 establishments in Alberta Flagstaff County Towns in Alberta