Taber is a town in southern Alberta

Southern Alberta

Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of the year 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017. The primary cities are Lethbridge and Medicine Hat...

, 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...

 in the Municipal District of Taber

Taber, Alberta (municipal district)

The Municipal District of Taber is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located in Census Division 2.-Demographics:The population of the Municipal District of Taber according to its 2008 municipal census is 6,714....

. Taber was established in the late 1890s by Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an settlers on the banks of the lower Oldman River

Oldman River

The Oldman River is a river in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows roughly west to east from the Rocky Mountains, through the communities of Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, Taber, and on to Grassy Lake, where it joins with the Bow River to form the South Saskatchewan River, which eventually drains into...

. It is an agricultural

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...

 town of 7,821 (2008) famous for its corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 due to the large amounts of sunshine

Sunlight

Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...

 the town and area receive. It has thus taken on the title Corn Capital of Canada, and has an annual "Cornfest" held in the last week of August.

Taber and Notogawa, Japan

Notogawa, Shiga

was a town located in Kanzaki District, Shiga, Japan. It touches the Lake Biwa on the northeast.On January 1, 2006 Notogawa, along with the town of Gamō, from Gamō District, was merged into the expanded city of Higashiōmi....

 are sister towns. The Taber Police Service

Taber Police Service

The Taber Police Service is the municipal police force for the Town of Taber, Alberta. Alf Rudd is the current Chief of Police. In September 2010, it became the only town in Alberta to have its own police service, when the Town of Lacombe incorporated as a city. The force was established in 1904....

 is the only town municipal police service in Alberta.

History

Originally, Taber was known as "Tank No. 77," and was used by the railway to fill up on water. In 1903, it is said that the first Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 settlers from the U.S.A. were the ones to establish a hamlet at the Tank. After the town's 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...

 was built in 1907, the CPR decided to call the town "Tabor," probably after Mount Tabor

Mount Tabor

-Places:*Mount Tabor, a hill in Israel near Nazareth believed by many to be the site of the Transfiguration of ChristIn the United States:*Mount Tabor, Indiana, an unincorporated community...

 in the Holy Land

Holy Land

The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...

. However, various letters and station heads came out printed "Taber," so the CPR changed the name to make it match the records.

An alternate version of the towns name origin is that the first part of the word tabernacle

Tabernacle (disambiguation)

The Tabernacle most commonly refers to the Jewish Tabernacle , which was a movable tent and worship facility used by the Israelites for the worship of Yahweh as recorded in the Book of Exodus...

 was used by Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 settlers in the vicinity, and the next Canadian Pacific Railway station was named Elcan (nacle spelled backwards).

After time, Taber became a successful coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 town. Coal mining declined in the late 1920s, but picked up in the 1930s after extensive irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

 in the area.

During the Second World War Japanese Canadians were "evacuated"

Japanese Canadian internment

Japanese Canadian internment refers to confinement of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II. The internment began in December 1941, following the attack by carrier-borne forces of Imperial Japan on American naval and army facilities at Pearl Harbor...

 to Alberta where some were employed in sugar beet cultivation for the duration of the war.

Irrigation helped not only the coal-miners, it also brought with it the production of sugar beets. In 1950, a sugar beet processing plant (Roger's Sugar) was built, which has become a vital part of the town's economy.

A number of archaeological discoveries were made in the vicinity of Taber, including that of extinct buffalo , and the so called "Taber child" in 1961 by the head of a Geological Survey of Canada team Dr. Archie Stalker in the glacial deposits along the east bank of the Oldman River

Oldman River

The Oldman River is a river in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows roughly west to east from the Rocky Mountains, through the communities of Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, Taber, and on to Grassy Lake, where it joins with the Bow River to form the South Saskatchewan River, which eventually drains into...

.

On April 28, 1999, Taber gained notoriety due to the W. R. Myers High School shooting

W. R. Myers High School shooting

The W. R. Myers High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The gunman, 14-year-old Todd Cameron Smith, walked into his school and began firing at three students in a hallway, killing one student and wounding...

 in which a 14-year-old entered W.R. Myers High School and shot two students with a .22 caliber sawn-off rifle killing Jason Lang and wounding another.

Demographics

The population of the Town of Taber according to its 2011 municipal census is 7,935, a 1.5% increase over its 2008 municipal census population of 7,821.

In 2006, Taber had a population of 7,591 living in 3,034 dwellings

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

, a -1.0% increase from 2001. The town has a land area of 15.09 km² (5.8 sq mi) and a population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 503.2 /km2.

Economy

Taber's economy is largely based on agriculture. Local produce includes hogs, beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

, sheep, poultry

Poultry

Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

, sugar beet

Sugar beet

Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...

s, potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

es, pea

Pea

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...

s, carrot

Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...

s, wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

, flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

, barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

, corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....

s, oats

OATS

OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...

, onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

s, canola

Canola

Canola refers to a cultivar of either Rapeseed or Field Mustard . Its seeds are used to produce edible oil suitable for consumption by humans and livestock. The oil is also suitable for use as biodiesel.Originally, Canola was bred naturally from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R...

 and mustard

Mustard seed

Mustard seeds are the small round seeds of various mustard plants. The seeds are usually about 1 or 2 mm in diameter. Mustard seeds may be colored from yellowish white to black. They are important spices in many regional foods. The seeds can come from three different plants: black mustard , brown...

. Roger's Sugar

Rogers Sugar Income Fund

Rogers Sugar Income Fund is the income trust that was established in October 1997 to act as a holding company for Lantic Sugar Limited that operates in Eastern Canada and Rogers Sugar Ltd. that is based in Western Canada...

 Taber's sugar beet processing plant plays a vital role in the economy. There are several food processing companies based in the town, including a Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay North America is the division of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips,...

 factory, which produces various snack products for much of Western Canada. As well, sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 and gravel

Gravel

Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...

 are mined here. To a smaller extent, there is also a significant oil and gas

Petroleum industry

The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...

 component to the economy.

Education

Grades Kindergarten through 12 are administered in Taber by the Horizon School Division and Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Division. Taber has a Christian School for Kindergarten through Grade 9. Other education systems include Community Adult Learning Council, ACE Place Learning Center and a Career Resource Center.

Climate

Taber experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification

Köppen climate classification

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

 BSk).

Cornfest

Cornfest is an annual summer festival held in late August, and it includes a midway (rides, booths, and tests of skill) and a stage with performers. There are also corn-based activities, such as corn tasting and stuffing. Large-scale, local corn producers enter their best varieties in the 'Best Corn of the Year' award.

Corn stuffing involves two people, one wearing an over-sized coverall. One of the contestants attempts to stuff as much corn as possible into the other's coverall. Whichever team can put the most corn in the coveralls in the allotted time wins.

Famous people

• Corb Lund, country music artist.
• Devin Setoguchi
  Devin Setoguchi
  Devin Charlie Kenichi Setoguchi is a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League . Known by the nicknames The Gooch, and Seto, Setoguchi is Half-Yonsei...
  
  , professional ice hockey player for the Minnesota Wild.

External links

• Town of Taber
• Destination Taber http://www.destinationtaber.com/