Cold Lake

History

Cold Lake was first recorded on a 1790 map, by the name of Coldwater Lake. Around 1877, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established a fur trade post at Cold Lake, to trade with the Chipewyans from the Cold Lake First Nation. First serving as an outpost of the Onion Lake post, it became a full post in 1915 and got its own outpost at Le Goff (in Cold Lake 149 reserve) in November 1930. The post closed in 1937. Originally three communities, Cold Lake was formed by merging the Town of Grand Centre, the Town of Cold Lake, and Medley (CFB Cold Lake) on October 1, 1996. Grand Centre was renamed Cold Lake South, and the original Cold Lake is known as Cold Lake North. Because of its origins, the area is also known as the Tri-Town.

Geography

The city is situated in Alberta's "Lakeland" district, northeast of Edmonton, near the Alberta-Saskatchewan provincial border. The area surrounding the city is sparsely populated, and consists mostly of farmland. It is almost entirely surrounded by but not part of Municipal District of Bonnyville No. 87. Nearby are the First Nation reserves of Cold Lake 149, Cold Lake 149A, and Cold Lake 149B. Cold Lake's climate is humid continental (Köppen climate classification Dfb). Summers are generally warm with cool nights, and winters are very cold with moderate snowfall. The record high temperature was recorded June 27, 2002. |source 2= weatherstats.ca (for dewpoint and monthly&yearly average absolute maximum&minimum temperature) }}

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  1,115
• White-throated Sparrow

  Zonotrichia albicollis (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  985
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  980
• Franklin's Gull

  Leucophaeus pipixcan (Wagler, 1831) · Aves
  935
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  890
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  873
• Chipping Sparrow

  Spizella passerina (Bechstein, 1798) · Aves
  844
• Red-necked Grebe

  Podiceps grisegena (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  836