Edmonton History, Alberta

Edmonton is the second largest city of Canadian Province of Alberta. The area in and around Edmonton happens to be one of the most fertile farmlands of the prairies. Although Edmonton has a population of over 1 million still it has the lowest population densities (9.4% that of New York City) in the Northern American region. People living in Edmonton are also known as Edmontonians.

Somewhere in 3000 B.C. people started to locate themselves in the area which is now called Edmonton. Records say that many might have shown up during the 10,000 B.C., after the departure of the final ice age. It was the hurdle of ice age which had blocked the supply of water, timber, and other natural necessities in Edmonton. Once, these resources started to show up then people also started to come to this area, the later called Edmonton.

First European to enter Edmonton was Anthony Henday in the year 1754 and by the year 1795 Hudson’s Bay Company had established Ford Edmonton on the Northern Bank of the river for their trading needs. Edmonton had started to grow economically after this place was built for business purposes.

The real estate boom ended during World War I and hence the population of Edmonton went down to 54,000 in 1916 from 72,500 in 1914. The booming city couldn’t recover from the aftermath of World War I until World War II subsided.

Edmonton’s luck changed once again when oil was discovered in the early 1947 in a small town (named Leduc) located south of Edmonton. These oil reserves had started to produce huge quantity of oil compared to other regions in southern Alberta. Slowly Edmonton had become the hub of the oil industry in and around Alberta. It was named the “Oil Capital of Canada” by 1950. The city suffered economic plunge during the year of 1986 when oil prices miserably went down around the globe. Edmonton strived hard to recover from the setback and it was not before late 1990s that they could recover economically.

With passing time Edmonton is now one of the booming cities of Canada and some famous cities like 104 Street and Jasper Avenue have plenty of restaurants, clubs, shops, etc. for visitors as well as locals.

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