Red Deer, Alberta: History
The area was inhabited by First Nations including the Blackfoot, Plains Cree and Stoney before the arrival of European fur traders in the late eighteenth century. A First Nations trail ran from the Montana Territory across the Bow River near present-day Calgary and on to Fort Edmonton, later known as the Calgary and Edmonton Trail. The trail crossed the Red Deer River at a wide, stony shallows. The "Old Red Deer Crossing" is seven kilometres (4+1⁄2 miles) upstream from the present-day city.
Cree people called the river Waskasoo Seepee, which means "Elk River". European arrivals sometimes called North American elk "red deer", after the related Eurasian species, and later named the community after the river. The name for the modern city in Plains Cree is a calque of the English name (mihkwâpisimosos, literally "red type of deer"), while the name of the river itself is still wâwâskêsiw-sîpiy or "elk river".
First Nations on the north side of the river entered into Treaty 6 in 1876 and on the south side Treaty 7 in 1877. Farmers and ranchers began to settle on the fertile lands.
A trading post and stopping house were built at the Crossing in 1882. This became Fort Normandeau during the 1885 North-West Rebellion.
Leonard Gaetz
Leonard Gaetz gave a half-share of 500 hectares (1,240 acres) he had acquired to the Calgary and Edmonton Railway to develop a bridge over the river and a townsite. As a result, the Crossing was gradually abandoned. The first trains arrived in 1891.
1900 to 1929
Following World War I, Red Deer emerged as a small, quiet, but prosperous, prairie city.
Bird watcher Elsie Cassels helped to establish the Gaetz Lakes bird sanctuary.
1930 to 1945
During Great Depression of the 1930s, Central Alberta was not hit by severe drought. The city was virtually debt-free and profited from its ownership of the local public utilities.
In World War II, a large army training camp was located where Cormack Armoury, the Memorial Centre and Lindsay Thurber High School are now. Two training airfields were built south of the city at Penhold and Bowden.
Post–Second World War
Red Deer expanded rapidly following the discovery of major oil reserves in Alberta in the late 1940s. Red Deer became a centre for oil and gas and related industries, such as the Joffre Cogeneration Plant.
North Red Deer was amalgamated in 1948.
Government and administrative services include a hospital, a courthouse and a provincial building.
The railway moved to the outskirts and passenger train service ceased. The CPR bridge is now a walking trail.