Here are names of various places from Strathcona County’s past. Eight of these early districts developed into rural hamlets that are well established today. Others are small locales known mostly to long-time residents – remembered as the name of an old school, post office, store or railway stop.
Do you know a name that is not already on this list? Let us know the name and any detail you remember about the place.
Lori Clapp, 780-416-6762
Early communities - view map
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Campbelltown
In the early 1950s, developers John Hook Campbell and John Mitchell envisioned a satellite town of 100 houses to accommodate employees of the industries east of Edmonton. In 1953, they received approval from the Municipal District of Strathcona for the development of the residential hamlet named "Campbelltown" and in September 1955, the first model homes were opened to the public. Later in 1956, the name of the hamlet was changed to Sherwood Park. Canada Post would not approve Campbelltown, since there were several Canadian communities with similar names.
Resource: Wikipedia
Campbell Park
This sighting was named after Keith Campbell, the former executive vice-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The name was officially approved 12 March 1980.
Resource: Alberta Source
Coppice Hill
The origin for the name of this post office is unknown, however, the term 'coppice' or 'coppicing' refers to a traditional method of woodland management wherein young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level from which many new shoots rapidly emerge. Harvesting in this way allowed people to harvest woodland areas in rotations, or 'coups,' which allowed a great deal of biodiversity. As well, a properly coppiced tree will never die of old age, allowing forests to be harvested, in theory, for ever.
Resources: Wikipedia, Alberta Source
Bretona
The Canadian Northern Railway established a station here before 1915. The origin for the name Bretona is not known. The post office, which served this community, was called Hercules, mile 37.6 on the Strathcona Branch. Geographically, Bretona is inside the Edmonton city limits roughly where the community of Millwoods now stands.
Resource: Alberta Source
Ardrossan
Ardrossan had its beginnings in 1909 as a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway or GTPR stop. The post office opened the same year. Miss Edmiston, a local resident, named it for a holiday resort town in Strathclyde, Scotland the name is from the Gaelic, meaning “height of the little cape.” Now a hamlet, it is under the jurisdiction of Strathcona County.
Resource: Alberta Source
Antler Lake
A small hamlet on the east shore of Antler Lake.
Resource: Wikipedia
Fultonvale
Named after the pioneer Leander Fulton and his family in the 1880s.
Resource: Strathcona County Website
Good Hope
The name for the post office, which operated here from March 1907 through November 1945, reflected the optimism of the early settlers for the future.
Resource: Alberta Source
Half Moon Lake
Half Moon Lake is a picturesque lake most likely named for it's unique crescent shape. Little is known about the history of the lake, however, the earliest documentation of the name appears on a 1915 federal government map. In the late 1950s the land north of the lake was subdivided into residential lots, with the subdivision of the south side following soon after.
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
Hastings Lake
The Cree name for the lake is a-ka-ka-kwa-tikh, which means "the lake that does not freeze.” Apparently, springs that flow into the lake bottom, prevent parts of the lake from icing over in winter. In 1884, the lake and its outlet were renamed by J.B. Tyrrell for Tom Hastings, a member of Tyrrell's geological survey party
The first settlers at Hastings Lake were Jonas Ward and August Gladue, who arrived sometime during the late 1800s (Touchings, 1976). A Grand Trunk Railway station was built at the hamlet of Deville, 2.5 km north of the lake, in 1909, and a post office was established there soon after. In 1912, the school district of Deville was created, and a school was built in the hamlet
In 1893, a sawmill operated just south of the lake (Redekop and Gilchrist 1981). In 1899, Alberta's first forest reserve, the Cooking Lake Forest Reserve, was opened. It included all of Hastings Lake's drainage basin as well as land north and south of the drainage basin (Touchings, 1976).
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
Josephburg
This hamlet was named for a town in Galicia, formerly part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first settlers hailed from two villages, Brigidau and Josefsberg, thirteen kilometres apart. From 1888 to 1890 many families left for Canada and took up homesteads near Medicine Hat, naming their settlement Josefsburg. After two successive crop failures owing to drought they sought new land near Edmonton, arriving in 1891. One group took up land eight kilometres east of Fort Saskatchewan and named the new settlement Josefsberg. In December 1893, Josefsberg Public School District #296 was established and Gus Doze, the first secretary-treasurer, began to spell the name of the district "Josephburg," which has been used ever since.
Resource: Alberta Source
Ministik (Ministik Lake)
Ministik is the Cree word for “island,” and the name is descriptive of the island in the lake. It was noted by the DLS as early as 1901. A post office operated here from January 1908 through December 1927 and was named for its proximity to Ministik Lake
Resource: Alberta Source
Partridge Hill
A post office operated here from October 1904 through December 1912. The name was taken after the school district which was founded in 1894, but it is not clear who proposed it. One account maintains that it was named by C.E. Flintoff, an early settler who was standing on a low hill with some friends when a flock of partridges flew up. Another account states that it was named by Albert Peebles, one of the first homesteaders in the area.
Resource: Alberta Source
Pointe-aux-pins
The name for this creek is the French for the abundance of pine trees in the area.
Pointe-aux pin flows north-west into North Saskatchewan River, approximately 20 km north north-east of Edmonton. It was the last of six river crossings for weary travellers heading along the 21-mile trail from the Strathcona train terminus to Fort Saskatchewan.
Resource: Alberta Source, Alberta Heritage
Salisbury
The Salisbury District comprised sixteen square miles bounded by what is now 17 Street on the west, Baseline Road on the north, approximately Clover Bar Road on the east, and Township Road 522 on the south. It took its name from Lord Salisbury who became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1894.
Resource: Salisbury United Church, a Short History
Scotford
A Canadian Northern Railway station was opened here in 1905 and its name is a combination of the first premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta — Walter Scott (1867-1938) and Alexander Cameron Rutherford (1858-1941). Mr. Scott was the publisher of the Regina Leader for many years. He was a Liberal member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories beginning in 1900 until he became Saskatchewan's first Premier. Mr. Rutherford was a lawyer in Strathcona when he was elected to the Northwest Territories Legislature in 1902. Three years later Prime Minister Laurier called on him to form the first Alberta Government.
Resource: Alberta Source
Uncas
The Canadian Northern Railway established a station here in 1909, and named it after the town of the same name in Oklahoma. James Fenimore Cooper introduces a character by this name in his novel The Last of the Mohicans. The post office operated from August 1925 through May 1968. Approximately 30 km east of Edmonton
Resource: Alberta Source
Cooking Lake
Cooking Lake is a large, shallow lake located about 25 km east of the city of Edmonton in the County of Strathcona. Highway 14 skirts the southern shore and Secondary Roads 629 and 630 skirt the northern and eastern shores (Fig. 1). The closest population centres are three hamlets-South Cooking Lake, North Cooking Lake and Collingwood Cove - located around the lakeshore.
The lake's name is a translation of the Cree opi-mi-now-wa-sioo, which means "a cooking place". The lake was a favourite Cree campground (Holmgren and Holmgren 1976; Redekop and Gilchrist, 1981).
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
South Cooking Lake
The hamlet of South Cooking Lake is the oldest settlement on Cooking Lake. In 1892, Sheriff Robertson of Edmonton set up a summer camp for his family there, and in 1893, he built a permanent cottage (Touchings, 1976). In 1894, a group of Edmontonians formed a company to develop an exclusive recreation club on Koney Island, in the southwest part of the lake. By 1905, South Cooking Lake had a store and post office, and in 1909, a school.
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
North Cooking Lake
The hamlet of North Cooking Lake became an important recreation area after 1909, when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line from Edmonton was completed. Special weekend trains from Edmonton brought tourists to the north end of the lake, and passenger boats from the hamlet transported the visitors to sandy beaches on the south shore (Redekop and Gilchrist 1981). Subdivision of the shorelands and islands at the north end of the lake was rapid, and there was a large demand for cottages prior to World War I. After the war, demand continued, but at a reduced rate.
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
Collingwood Cove
One of three hamlets on Cooking Lake, commonly referred to as The Cove, Collingwood Cove started growing in the early 1950s as a popular summer lakeside resort. It was popular due to its proximity to Edmonton and its location on Cooking Lake, which was, at that time, one of the best lakes for recreational activities in the region.
Resource: Wikipedia
Resource: Publication, Atlas of Alberta Lakes (1990), is available from area libraries. The database was decommissioned in 2022.
Clover Bar
This bar in the North Saskatchewan River was named after Thomas H. Clover (1829-1920), a California "forty-niner" who followed gold in California, joined the Cariboo Gold Rush, and then moved to this spot near Edmonton, which eventually became known as "Clover's Bar." It was at this bar in the early 1860s that Clover had the greatest success, and the name was later shortened to simply Clover Bar. He then moved to Fort Garry, where he delivered mail for a time, and then he apparently moved to Leroy, North Dakota.
Resource: Alberta Source
Further information
history@strathcona.ca
780-416-6762
