Welcome to Okotoks, Alberta, Canada
Your Okotoks (High River, Black Diamond, Millarvillie, Turner Valley)
area contact is Don Bird (REMAX House of Real Estate.) Please refer to the "Relocating to Okotoks" section to the right for
the phone number, address, website, and email address to contact Don Bird directly.
Ask about the REMAX MLS real estate homes for sale including residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and farms.
Okotoks summary
Okotoks is a town situated on the Sheep River, 18 kilometers (11 mi) south of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The town is a member of the Calgary Regional
Partnership, a cooperative of communities within Greater Calgary. Okotoks has become a popular bedroom community for the city of Calgary. According to
the 2006 Census, the city had the highest population growth between 2001 and 2006 across the country. Its population has grown by 46% since 2001.
The town's name is derived from "o'kotok", the Blackfoot First Nation word for "Big Rock", but is also often simply known as "Rock City". The rock being
referred to is the world's largest known glacial erratic which is situated about 8 km west of the town.
REMAX MLS real estate homes for sale including
residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and
farms.
Before European settlement, journeying First Nations used the rock as a marker to find the river crossing situated at Okotoks. The tribes were nomadic
and often followed large buffalo herds for their sustenance. David Thompson explored the area as early as 1800. Soon trading posts sprang up, including
one established in 1874 at the Sheep River crossing on the current Okotoks townsite. This crossing was on a trade route called the Macleod Trail, which
lead from Fort Benton, Montana to Calgary.
In 1879, the area saw the killing of the last buffalo. Government leasing of land for one cent per acre ($2.47/kmē) began in 1880. This created a major
change in the region. REMAX MLS real estate
homes for sale including residential houses, apartments, condos,
duplexes, acreages and farms.
The last stagecoach stopped in Okotoks in 1891 when rail service between Calgary and Fort Macleod replaced horse-drawn travel. By 1897 the community name
had changed three times: from Sheep Creek to Dewdney to Okotoks, assigned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The rail line is still a main line south to the
U.S. border, but the last of the passenger service (Dayliner unit) ended in 1971.
REMAX MLS real estate homes for sale including
residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and
farms.
Okotoks had its own lumber mill. Established in 1891, for 25 years John Lineham's sawmill was a major part of the local economy. At one time it employed
135 people, producing an average of 30,000 feet (9,000 m) of lumber per day. The growth of the Canadian Pacific Railway created a demand for railway ties
and the mill helped meet that demand. Logs were brought down from the west via the Sheep River. The mill has long since shut down, but the building (one
of the oldest remaining in the township) still stands. It housed an award-winning (butter) dairy from the 1920s to the 1940s. It currently houses a law
office and restaurant.
In 1900, just west of Okotoks, four brick making plants were opened. Many of the first brick buildings in Okotoks (of which a number still exist) were
constructed using locally-made brick. When the little industry had reached its peak in 1912, twelve million bricks were manufactured that year. The
outbreak of World War I caused the shutdown of “Sandstone” as it was known.
Oil was discovered west of Okotoks in 1913. Okotoks became the supply centre. In its heyday, from 1913 to the 1960s, Okotoks was busy with horses, wagons,
and transports hauling all types of equipment to the oil fields, and crude oil back through town to refineries in Calgary.
The Texas Gulf sulphur plant (known as CanOxy) opened in 1959, employing 45 people. It was not unusual to see the bright yellow, three-story high,
block-long, block-wide sulphur storage waiting to be melted or ground up and poured into railway cars.
REMAX MLS real estate homes for sale including
residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and
farms.
Since the 1974, Okotoks has been hosting a collector car auction in late May. It is the longest running collector car auction in Canada.
Okotoks was one of the few communities its size to have its own airport. A number of small air shows were held there over the years. It was the home of an
aircraft charter company, flight school, and a helicopter flying school. The site has now evolved into an airpark community called the Okotoks Air Ranch,
where the property owners, if they wish, can build homes with attached hangars for their private planes.
Text & photo credits
The text contained in 'Okotoks Summary' above is courtesy of Wikipedia.com.
The article ('Okotoks Summary') is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.)
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Okotoks, Alberta".
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