HARDISTY, ALBERTA

'Hardisty, Alberta' is a town in Flagstaff County in Alberta, Canada. It is located in east-central Alberta, from the Saskatchewan border, near the crossroads of Highway 13 and Highway 881, in the Battle River Valley.

Contents

History

Demographics

Industry

Education

Recreation

TV Show

See also

References

External links

History

Excerpts from '''Those Years from Rail to Oil; A History of Hardisty and Surrounding Area'''.^[2]
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 we know of to live in the Battle River Valley were the First Nations Peoples (Indians). 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. About 1904 the surveyors began to survey the railroad from the east and decided to locate a divisional point at Hardisty because of the good water supply from the 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.

Demographics

In 2006, Hardisty had a population of 760 living in 397 dwellings, a 2.3% increase from 2001. The town has a land area of and a population density of .

Industry

The main industries in and around Hardisty are petroleum and farming. There is a large petroleum "tank farm" near Hardisty, which is also a loci of oil pipelines. The oil industry in Hardisty focuses primarily on transport rather than oil processing or collection, and roughly 70% of all North America's oil is moved through Hardisty at some point. Some of the petroleum companies are, Gibsons, Enbridge, EnCana, and many others.

Education

Hardisty's school is named Allan Johnstone School, and teaches kindergarten and Grades 1 to 9. High school students (Grades 10 to 12), are taken by bus to Sedgewick. There is also a playschool in Hardisty.

Recreation

Hardisty Lake Park is located within the town limits and has camping, swimming, boating, trout fishing, golfing on grass greens, baseball diamonds, rodeos and sporting events. Hardisty also has a soccer field.
The winter sports consist of curling, skating, hockey, ice fishing, downhill and cross-country skiing.
For hunters, upland game, geese, ducks, mule and whitetail deer are plentiful. Hunters from miles around come to the district for their limits.

TV Show

Paperny Films taped the television show, "The Week The Women Went" in Hardisty in from June 2 to June 9, 2007. It is tentatively set to air on CBC in Canada in January or February of 2008.
The TV show is part documentary, part reality television, that explores 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.

See also

★ Towns of Alberta

References

1. Town of Hardisty. Town Council
2. Town of Hardisty

External links

★ Town of Hardisty Official Website

★ The Week The Women Went

★ Paperny Films

★ Pictures of the Community Project for "The Week the Women Went"