Spruce Grove is a city that is west of

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta, in Canada. The city is adjacent to the Town of Stony Plain and is surrounded by

Parkland County Parkland County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada. Located west of Edmonton in Census Division No. 11, its municipal office, Parkland County Centre, is located north of the Town of Stony Plain on Highway 779. History ;20 ...

. With a 2021 population of 37,645, Spruce Grove is the ninth-largest city in Alberta. The mayor of Spruce Grove is Jeff Acker. Spruce Grove is home to the Horizon Stage Performing Arts Centre, a local theatre, and the TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre, a recreation facility shared with Stony Plain and Parkland County. Jennifer Heil, the freestyle skier who won the first gold medal for Canada in the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy, and a silver medal at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

is from Spruce Grove, as is Carla MacLeod, a member of the 2010

Canada women's national ice hockey team The Canadian women's national ice hockey team is the ice hockey team representing Canada in women's hockey. The team is overseen by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and participates in international competitions ...

, and

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

member and

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

-winning goalie

Grant Fuhr Grant Scott Fuhr (born September 28, 1962) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL) and former goaltending coach for the Arizona Coyotes, who played for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s during wh ...

. Stephanie Labbé, goalkeeper for Canada's 2020 Summer Olympic gold-medal winning women's soccer team, grew up in the Spruce Grove and Stony Plain area and played soccer at Spruce Grove Composite High School.

History

Centuries before European settlement, the

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

and Sarcee people occupied the land that would become Spruce Grove, moving with the seasons. Homesteaders in the area date back to 1879. Originally the town comprised a general store, livery stables, blacksmith shop, hotel, and the

Roman Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. In 1908 the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

came through Spruce Grove and a station was built. With the establishment of the railway, the community became a busy grain-trading centre. Spruce Grove was incorporated as a village on March 14, 1907, but it was dissolved on August 30, 1916. Spruce Grove was re-incorporated as a village on January 1, 1955, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1971, and as a city on March 1, 1986.

Geography

Spruce Grove is near the province's geographical centre, at from

downtown Edmonton Downtown Edmonton is the central business district of Edmonton, Alberta. Located at the geographical centre of the city, the downtown area is bounded by 109 Street to the west, 105 Avenue to the north, 97 Street to the east, 97 Avenue and Rossdale ...

and from Edmonton's city limits.The City of Spruce Grove
Location
/ref> It is part of the

Edmonton Metropolitan Region The Edmonton Metropolitan Region (EMR), also commonly referred to as Greater Edmonton or Metro Edmonton, is a conglomeration of municipalities centred on Edmonton, the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. While the EMR is not a strictly ...

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, the City of Spruce Grove had a population of 37,645 living in 14,273 of its 14,752 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 34,108. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The population of the City of according to its 2017 municipal census is 34,881, a change of from its 2016 municipal census population of 33,640. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the City of Spruce Grove had a population of 34,066 living in 12,552 of its 13,109 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 26,171. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Ethnicity

Arts and culture

The Spruce Grove Art Gallery is in the Melcor Cultural Centre and is operated by the Allied Arts Council of Spruce Grove. The gallery hosts ongoing shows for original art created by its members, made up of artists from mainly the Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County area. Horizon Stage hosts many plays and acts throughout the year, as well as a lot of community theatre. Spruce Grove also has a 7 screen theatre complex which opened in the fall of 2007. Another cultural facility within the city is the Spruce Grove Grain Elevator Museum.

Attractions

The TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre, opened in 2002, provides a pool, soccer fields, a gymnasium, workout gym, and ice rinks to the people of Parkland County. Spruce Grove has bike trails winding throughout the city, called the Heritage Grove Trail, where bike riders can ride for hours through lush forest. On June 7, 2008, Spruce Grove held the grand opening of the West District Park, which features two full artificial surface fields for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, soccer and other activities. The

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

donated $10,000 towards the event and held practice at the facility as part of the first-day activities.

Sports

Spruce Grove has a number of youths and adults involved in amateur sports, that run year round.

Box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's officia ...

runs from March to July under the organization Parkland Posse, which pulls young people from the Tri communities of Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County.

Hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

runs from September to April,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and rugby run from May to October, football runs from July to December and baseball runs from March to October. The Spruce Grove Saints are a Junior A hockey team that play in the

British Columbia Hockey League The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) is an independent Canadian Junior ice hockey league with 21 teams in British Columbia and Alberta. It was classified as a Junior "A" league within the Hockey Canada framework, until it became independe ...

. The TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre is an activity centre formed as a union between the municipalities of

, Stony Plain and Spruce Grove. It is in the west end of Spruce Grove. The centre was opened to the public by Premier

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2 ...

on September 18, 2002. , the Energy City Metro Ballpark is under construction. Upon completion, it will become the home stadium of the Energy City Cactus Rats.

Infrastructure

Transportation

;Highways :Two highways pass through Spruce Grove, Highway 16 (

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway () is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg west to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western provinces of Britis ...

) and Highway 16A. Highway 16 has no traffic lights but has two exits into Spruce Grove, while Highway 16A has several traffic intersections. Travelling east on either of these highways leads to Edmonton. Travelling west on Highway 16A leads to Stony Plain, and going west on either highway leads to Edson, Hinton, and eventually

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

. ;Local streets :The majority of the streets in Spruce Grove use a standard naming system. Their names share a first letter with that of its subdivision. For example, all streets start with ''M'' in Millgrove subdivision; in Woodhaven, they all start with ''W''. Only in the original subdivision of Broxton Park and the downtown core is this naming convention not utilized. ;Rail :''

The Canadian ''The Canadian'' () is a transcontinental passenger train operated by Via Rail with service between Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, and Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Pacific introduced this serv ...

'' passenger train travels through the city, however, the nearest stop is at

. ;Transit :Spruce Grove Transit operated by

Edmonton Transit Service The Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) (previously known as Edmonton Transit System) is the public transit service owned and operated by the City of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. It operates Edmonton's bus and Edmonton LRT, light rail systems. In , t ...

offers a commuter transit route from Spruce Grove including the Spruce Grove Transit Centre to Edmonton, peak hours only. There is also a local transit service run by the city for transportation within the city boundaries. ;Air :Local air travel is provided by Parkland Airport and Villeneuve Airport. However, the nearest major international airport is the

Edmonton International Airport Edmonton International Airport , officially branded YEG Edmonton International Airport since 2022, is the primary air passenger and air cargo facility in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian pro ...

, just south of Edmonton.

Education

;Public schools Spruce Grove is part of the Parkland School Division No. 70. The following public schools are in Spruce Grove. *Brookwood School *Copperhaven School *École Broxton Park School *Greystone Centennial Middle School *Millgrove School *Parkland Village School *Spruce Grove Composite High School *Woodhaven K-9 School *Prescott Learning Centre ;Separate schools Spruce Grove is part of the Evergreen Catholic Separate School Division. The following separate schools are in Spruce Grove. *St. Joseph's Catholic School *St. Marguerite Catholic School *St. Peter the Apostle Catholic High School *St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School ;Private schools *Living Waters Christian Academy

Media

Spruce Grove receives almost all of its print, radio, and television media from Edmonton. However, Spruce Grove has its own weekly newspaper, the ''Spruce Grove Examiner'', delivered to all homes every Friday. This newspaper holds almost exclusively local news. The area has a radio station, 88.1 The One is dedicated to Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, and area.

Notable people

Stu Barnes Stuart Douglas Barnes (born December 25, 1970) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey Forward (ice hockey), forward. He played 16 seasons at Centre (ice hockey), centre in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets (1972–96), Winnipeg Jets, ...

(former professional

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

player) * Nathan Dempsey (former professional hockey player) *

(former professional hockey player, member of the

) * Jennifer Heil (former Olympic moguls

skier Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International ...

) * Mark Korte (professional

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

player) * Stephanie Labbé (former professional soccer player and Olympic gold medal winner) * Justin Lawrence (professional

player) * Carla MacLeod (former Olympic hockey player) * Kelly Perlette (former gold medal boxer, Commonwealth Games) * Howie Schumm and Herb Schumm (brothers, both former professional

players) * Ben Scrivens (professional hockey player) * Keith Shologan (professional

player) * Grant Stevenson (professional hockey player)

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1907 establishments in Alberta 1955 establishments in Alberta Cities in Alberta Edmonton Metropolitan Region