Northwestern Alberta Northeastern Alberta North-Central Alberta Central Alberta Southern Alberta

Many of the first settlements in Alberta—communities born of grit, necessity, and hope for a prosperous future—left behind a legacy of French culture that still holds strong in many small communities and in pockets in some of the larger ones. These hamlets, villages, towns, and cities began as a simple church on a lakeside, or as a walled fort on a river’s edge. In the following sections you will learn about the earliest settlements of Alberta and the brave French immigrants who helped build them.