Beaverlodge

Beaverlodge, Alberta, incorporated as a village in 1929 and as a town in 1956, population 2365 (2011c), 2264 (2006c). The Town of Beaverlodge is located 43 km west of Grande Prairie and was named after the small Beaverlodge River, earlier named Uz-i-pa ("temporary lodge") by members of the Beaver First Nation. Euro-Canadian settlement began in 1908, and in 1909 a group of breakaway Methodists from Ontario known as the Christian Association took out homesteads. The district was recognized for high quality grain production long before the railway arrived in 1928. In 1914 Donald Albright began experimenting with grain varieties near the community, and in 1917 his farm was established as a Dominion agricultural research sub-station, which still exists as an Agriculture and Agri-Food research farm (see also Agricultural Research Stations).

Beaverlodge has a lively arts community based at the Beaverlodge Area Cultural Centre, where paintings by Euphemia McNaught, Robert Guest and others can be seen. The large outdoor South Peace Centennial Museum is nearby. Also nearby is Saskatoon Hill (known locally as Saskatoon Mountain), where evidence of human habitation about 9500 years old has been found and where, from 1953 to 1988, a Pinetree radar station (see Early-Warning Radar) was maintained.