Etzikom

History

Etzikom is 56 kilometres west of the Fletcher Paleo-Indian Site, where plant matter from the Holocene era was found to be preserved in lake beds. Artifacts and bones dating to around the 5th millennium BC were also discovered at the site. The first settlers arrived in Etzikom in 1909, which was initially known to settlers as Endon. A post office began operating in the area under the name Endon in 1911, run by W.R. Shields from his general store. (Some sources report the settlement was initially called Etzikom until the Post Office Department arbitrarily changed it to the more "suitable" name of Endon, but this chain of events is not reflected in postal records or local histories accessed by Alberta Culture.) In 1914, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) introduced a railway station nearby under the name Etzikom. Etzikom's early economy primarily relied on grain farming and cattle ranching, and farmers relied upon windmills to grind grain and pump water. Construction began on four grain elevators in 1915. In the years following the CPR's introduction, the hamlet also received a hotel, eateries, a blacksmith, and a branch of the Union Bank of Canada (later the Royal Bank of Canada). In this decade, Etzikom had a peak 300 residents. Long observed that towns along the "eastern fringes of Lethbridge... from Etzikom to Burdett" had more abandoned farms than any other part of his journey. Successive priests who took up this role lived in the Etzikom Hotel from 1927 until the 1950s. Nonetheless, after the 1965 introduction of Highway 61, residents of nearby settlements slowly began to reduce their reliance on Etzikom's commercial services, as they were able to travel to larger settlements. Nonetheless, the Government of Alberta accepted Etzikom as a settlement for provincial…

Most-observed species

• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  279
• Western Meadowlark

  Sturnella neglecta Audubon, 1844 · Aves
  271
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  267
• Horned Lark

  Eremophila alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  253
• Killdeer

  Charadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  252
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  237
• Northern Shoveler

  Spatula clypeata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  235
• Willet

  Tringa semipalmata (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  221