Entwistle, Alberta
Encyclopedia
Entwistle is a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
within Parkland County
Parkland County, Alberta
Parkland County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada.It is located west of Edmonton in Census Division No. 11, along the Parkland Highway...
. It is located at the Yellowhead Highway
Yellowhead Highway
The Yellowhead Highway is a major east-west highway connecting the four western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Although part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, the highway should not be confused with the more southerly, originally-designated...
's intersection with Highway 22/Highway 16A, approximately 95 kilometres (59 mi) west of Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
on the Yellowhead Highway
Yellowhead Highway
The Yellowhead Highway is a major east-west highway connecting the four western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Although part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, the highway should not be confused with the more southerly, originally-designated...
. Entwistle sits on the east banks of the Pembina River
Pembina River (Alberta)
Pembina is a river in central Alberta, Canada. It is a tributary of the Athabasca River.Pembina is a Canadian French name for the high bush cranberry . The river gives the name to the Pembina oil field,an oil and gas producing region centered around Drayton Valley...
near the halfway point between Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
and Edson
Edson, Alberta
Edson is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway and east of the intersection with Highway 47.- History :left|thumb|200px|Welcome Sign...
.
Entwistle has grown to become a popular staging area for the oil and gas industry. It is also quite famous for its annual rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
, the Pembina River Provincial Park
Pembina River Provincial Park
Pembina River Provincial Park is a provincial park in central Alberta, Canada.It is located between the towns of Entwistle and Evansburg, a short distance from the Yellowhead Highway. The short 16A highway spur crosses the southern edge of the park, which is developed along the gorges of the...
, and being the Diamond Capital of Canada.
Entwistle is within the federal riding of Yellowhead
Yellowhead (electoral district)
Yellowhead is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979. The district is in west-central Alberta, and represents the counties of Yellowhead, Woodlands, Lac Ste. Anne, Barrhead, the improvement districts No. 9 and No...
, provincial electoral district of Stony Plain
Stony Plain (electoral district)
Stony Plain originally styled Stonyplain is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. From 1926 to 1957 Single Transferable Vote was used in the...
and Parkland County's Division 6.
History
Entwistle was founded by James Entwistle, an employee of the Grand Trunk Pacific RailwayGrand Trunk Pacific Railway
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historical Canadian railway.A wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway , the GTPR was constructed by GTR using loans provided by the Government of Canada. The company was formed in 1903 with a mandate to build west from Winnipeg, Manitoba to the...
. Entwistle knew that construction of the railway would be halted on the east banks of the Pembina River
Pembina River (Alberta)
Pembina is a river in central Alberta, Canada. It is a tributary of the Athabasca River.Pembina is a Canadian French name for the high bush cranberry . The river gives the name to the Pembina oil field,an oil and gas producing region centered around Drayton Valley...
for a few years as a bridge was built over the river. A boomtown would most certainly spring up. Seizing the opportunity, Entwistle staked a claim on a section of land very close to the Pembina River and the surveyed line for the GTPR in 1907. In 1908, as the railway construction camps drew closer to the Pembina River, Entwistle built a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
on his land, and left it in the care of his wife and children. The railway soon arrived, construction on the railway bridge stated, and the boomtown formed around Entwistle’s store.
Soon, there were enough people living in the boomtown to warrant a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. But, to get a post office, they needed a name for the town. The town was informally known as "Pembina", after the river, but that name was rejected by the federal government, citing duplication. The names “Burke” and “Harmer
Harmer
Harmer may refer to:People:*Alfred C. Harmer , US Congressman from Pennsylvania*Ambrose Harmer , Virginia colonial politician*Barbara Harmer , English airline pilot*Dani Harmer , British actress...
” were also proposed, and again, each one rejected on the grounds of duplication. Entwistle was quite embarrassed when people started suggesting that he name the town after himself. Entwistle was fairly certain that 'Entwistle' was already the name of a town, as he knew of at least one town called Entwistle in England
Entwistle, Lancashire
Entwistle is a village in the Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority in Lancashire in the north west of England.Its name derives from the Old English ened and twisla which means a river fork frequented by ducks. The name was recorded as Hennetwisel in 1212, Ennetwysel in 1276 and Entwissell in 1311...
. But, Entwistle's wife Mary went and submitted the name 'Entwistle,' and it was accepted. For years after, Entwistle was often joked about how he found a way to put his name on the map, to which Entwistle would always reply, “It wasn't me who put it there – it was Mary.”
Entwistle was officially incorporated as a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
on March 26, 1909. James Entwistle was elected the first mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
in April 1909.
The railway trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
was completed in 1910. Shortly after, the Canadian Northern Railway
Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway is a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its demise in 1923, when it was merged into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.-Manitoba beginnings:CNoR had its start in...
came close to Entwistle, and built their own railway bridge from 1910 to 1912. The railway construction boom started moving west in 1912, but many stayed behind in the Village of Entwistle. In those early decades, Entwistle had a thriving agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
industry, along with timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
and the coal mines in neighbouring Evansburg
Evansburg, Alberta
Evansburg is a hamlet in west-central Alberta, Canada, within Yellowhead County. It is located on Highway 16A, approximately west of Edmonton and east of Edson. The hamlet is adjacent to the Pembina River and the Pembina River Provincial Park....
.
Entwistle was dissolved on February 16, 1942, becoming a hamlet in the M.D. of Pembina. Entwistle was once again incorporated as a village on January 1, 1955. Entwistle was once again dissolved on January 1, 2001, becoming a hamlet in Parkland County
Parkland County, Alberta
Parkland County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada.It is located west of Edmonton in Census Division No. 11, along the Parkland Highway...
.
Demographics
The population of Entwistle according to Parkland County's 2009 municipal census is 534.Economy
Entwistle's economy is supported by the nearby oilPetroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
industries. The tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
industry also plays a role in the local economy due to Entwistle's location at the approximate mid-point between Edmonton and Edson at the intersection of the Yellowhead Highway
Yellowhead Highway
The Yellowhead Highway is a major east-west highway connecting the four western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Although part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, the highway should not be confused with the more southerly, originally-designated...
and Highway 22. Its tourism economy is seasonally supplemented by the nearby Pembina River Provincial Park
Pembina River Provincial Park
Pembina River Provincial Park is a provincial park in central Alberta, Canada.It is located between the towns of Entwistle and Evansburg, a short distance from the Yellowhead Highway. The short 16A highway spur crosses the southern edge of the park, which is developed along the gorges of the...
and the annual Entwistle Rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
every Canada Day
Canada Day
Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...
weekend.
Diamond Capital of Canada
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
in the banks of the Pembina River. The diamond weighed 0.83 carats (166 mg), and was described as being “a perfect octahedron
Octahedron
In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. A regular octahedron is a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex....
with eight faces; a clear, colorless stone.” Opdahl sold the diamond to gem cutter Ed Arsenault for $500. It was later claimed that Arsenault discovered the diamond.
When De Beers
De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
staked a claim for diamond mining in Alberta’s Peace River
Peace River (Canada)
The Peace River is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River flows into the Slave River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River. The Mackenzie is the 12th longest river in the world,...
country in 1990, people were reminded of the discovery of a diamond in the Pembina River near Entwistle. Several Alberta-based exploratory companies staked diamond claims near Entwistle and the Pembina River in 1992.
Opdahl and Arsenault’s discovery and the mini-boom in diamond prospecting led Entwistle to claim the title Diamond Capital of Canada in 1994.
The Pembina River Viaduct
The Grand Trunk Pacific railway bridge whose construction caused Entwistle to spring up is still in operation today. It is a vital part of the Canadian National RailwayCanadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
main line, connecting Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. An average of 20 trains travel across it per day. The trestle itself is 910 feet (277.4 m) long and 214 feet (65.2 m) high. It was the first steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
railway trestle built in Western Canada. It is currently the second-highest railway trestle in Western Canada.
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
big enough to carry steel back then, a massive false bridge and scaffolding was built out of wood. The steel bridge itself was completely pre-fabricated in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The Scottish engineers assembled the bridge in Scotland, ran their tests on it, and then carefully dismantled it. The bridge was shipped piece-by-piece across the Atlantic, and brought out to Entwistle on the railway. The pieces began arriving in 1909, and the steel bridge was slowly assembled. The engineers’ measurements were so accurate, that no modifications were needed on site.
As the steel structure was laid in place, the wooden scaffolding and false bridge were gradually dismantled. Construction was completed in 1910. As it nears the end of its first century of use, it has required no major repairs; only routine maintenance.
The Yellowhead Highway Bridge
Gordon Taylor
Gordon Edward Taylor was a Canadian politician, businessman and teacher.-Provincial political career:He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1940 provincial election representing Drumheller for Social Credit and continued to sit in the legislature for 39 years...
, the Minister of Highways.
The bridge is 207 feet (63.1 m) high and approximately 900 feet (274.3 m) long. It cost $1.7 million. When construction was finished in 1962, it was the highest highway bridge in Alberta.
The J.D. Read Memorial Building
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
yard in 1910. In 1912, he started up a feed business, which was hugely successful all throughout the 1940s. Read was also very interested in village matters, serving on the Entwistle Village Council from 1913 to 1942. He was even mayor of Entwistle from 1925 to 1930, and 1935 to 1942.
Read sold off his business and retired in 1946. When he died in 1965, he left the bulk of his estate to the Village of Entwistle, with the instruction that it be used “to build something that will be used by the whole community.” In 1973, the J.D. Read Memorial Building was built. Until recently, the J.D. Read Memorial Building housed Entwistle’s bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
, post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, and public library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and it is currently home to a newly expanded post office and a travel agency
Travel agency
A travel agency is a retail business that sells travel related products and services to customers on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, sightseeing tours and package holidays that combine several products...
.
Entwistle vs. Old Entwistle
One mile to the east of Entwistle lays the hamlet of Old Entwistle. Old Entwistle has a population of around 20. The citizens of Old Entwistle have always maintained that their hamlet is all that remains of the original village of Entwistle. Usually, they offer up their hamlet's name as the only proof.When the railway bridge was completed in 1910, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historical Canadian railway.A wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway , the GTPR was constructed by GTR using loans provided by the Government of Canada. The company was formed in 1903 with a mandate to build west from Winnipeg, Manitoba to the...
decided that, since Entwistle and Evansburg were so close to each other, the two villages could share one train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
. Evansburg was chosen to have the train station. The people of Entwistle were furious, and demanded their own train station.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway finally relented. Entwistle’s train station had to be built one mile (1.6 km) east of Entwistle, as this was the minimum distance required so as not to interfere with Evansburg’s train station. The GTPR then proceeded to buy up all the land around the train station. The GTPR then put the land up for sale, advertising the land around the train station as being "the future site of Entwistle." This area became known as the Grand Trunk Pacific subdivision, or simply, Grand Trunk. Despite the railway’s efforts, the people of Entwistle opted to walk one mile (1.6 km) to the train station, rather than move the town.
It is unknown when Grand Trunk started being referred to as Old Entwistle, but the name became common in the late 1980s. Old Entwistle is the original location of Entwistle’s train station, not the whole community.
See also
- List of communities in Alberta
- List of hamlets in Alberta
- Evansburg, AlbertaEvansburg, AlbertaEvansburg is a hamlet in west-central Alberta, Canada, within Yellowhead County. It is located on Highway 16A, approximately west of Edmonton and east of Edson. The hamlet is adjacent to the Pembina River and the Pembina River Provincial Park....
, Entwistle's neighbouring community on the west banks of the Pembina River. - Parkland County, AlbertaParkland County, AlbertaParkland County is a municipal district in central Alberta, Canada.It is located west of Edmonton in Census Division No. 11, along the Parkland Highway...
, Entwistle's governing body - Pembina River Provincial ParkPembina River Provincial ParkPembina River Provincial Park is a provincial park in central Alberta, Canada.It is located between the towns of Entwistle and Evansburg, a short distance from the Yellowhead Highway. The short 16A highway spur crosses the southern edge of the park, which is developed along the gorges of the...