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Central Alberta Regional Museums Network Online Catalogue

The Region

The Albertan Heartlands

Central Alberta covers over 60,000 square kilometers of Alberta and is located in the core of the province. Because trembling aspen trees are pervasive in the area, the region is sometimes referred to as the Aspen Parkland or Aspenland. The museum members of CARMN research, study, collect, and interpret the rich historical, natural, cultural, scientific, and technological heritage of the region.

The region is also a part of the Great Plains and has been the home of Aboriginal Peoples for nearly 10,000 years. The area was important in the buffalo robe trade, and it is believed that the last kill occurred at Tail Creek. There are many important Aboriginal archaeological sites in the region.

With respect to the colonial era, the region saw fur trade activity and the establishment of Methodist and Roman Catholic missions. The signing of Treaties 6 and 7 enabled the coming of the railways and the development of more settlements. The rich agricultural land attracted settlers from a range of ethnocultural communities who left their mark on the landscape, buildings, heritage, and cultural traditions of the region. It is an area where religious communities have settled, shaped community life, and developed their own schools.

Although small-scale industrial activity is found throughout the region, it was the coming of Leduc #1 that served as a catalyst for the growth of the towns and cities. Today, intensive farming operations, extensive oil industry activity, and residential growth are putting pressures on the environment and the community infrastructure. The Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, one of four areas of intense industrial activity in Canada, cuts through the region and makes the Queen Elizabeth Highway (formerly Highway 2) an important north-south trade link. Like all regions of the province, industrial growth has created infrastructure problems and challenges not only to the environment but also to the architectural heritage.

CARMN, the second regional museum organization to be developed in Alberta and predated only by the Spirit of the Peace Network, serves as a forum for information sharing and improvement of museum and archival practice.

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