Central Alberta
Settlers from France were notable in the Francophone settlements of Central Alberta.
- In 1906, Dr. Tanche of Lille came to Sylvan Lake in 1906 with about 30 French families. They all lived together in a large barn which was also used for their poultry and livestock. The colony was a failure and disbanded two years later; about half of the members went back to France while the rest took homesteads elsewhere in the province.
- The Edmonton Bulletin notes approximately 50 Breton settlers heading for Red Deer in 1904.
- The sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron established a convent and hospital at Trochu, where a group of former French officers created the town after leaving France in refusal to follow orders concerning the eviction of religious communities with the separation of the Church and the State.
- About the same time French community was found in the area between Drumheller and Stettler. Twelve priests from Tinchebray in Normandy settled and established parishes and missions. By 1910, they had built a church, convent, school, and hospital in Stettler. They left the area suddenly during the 1920s following difficulties with the bishop of the diocese of Edmonton, H. J. O'Leary.
Many of the French citizens of the region left in 1914 to fight in the First World War.
