St. Albert

History

St. Albert was founded in 1861 as a Métis settlement by Father Albert Lacombe, OMI, who built a small chapel, the Father Lacombe Chapel, in the Sturgeon River valley. The chapel still stands to this day on Mission Hill in St. Albert. The original settlement was named Saint Albert by Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché, OMI, after Lacombe's name saint, Saint Albert of Louvain. Originally, although Lacombe had intended to found the mission at Lac Ste. Anne, the soil proved infertile, thus he moved the settlement to what would become St. Albert. This location offered several advantages, notably its easy access to supplies of wood and water, in addition to its excellent soil, it being a regular stopping-point for First Nations peoples on their travels, and its proximity to Fort Edmonton, where the priests could purchase necessary supplies and minister to Catholic workers. A few years later, a group of Grey Nuns would follow Lacombe from Lac Ste. Anne. More Métis from Lac Ste. Anne arrived in 1863 and, by December 1864, the population was roughly 300. In 1870, localised outbreaks of smallpox had spread northward into St. Albert, killing 320 of the area's then-900 residents. St. Albert was previously the site of two Indian residential schools as part of the Canadian Residential School System. The St. Albert Indian Residential School ("Youville") was located on Mission Hill within the St. Albert city limits and was operated by the Roman Catholic Church from October 22, 1873, to June 30, 1948, after being relocated from the Lac Ste. Anne Mission, the site of its original founding. The Edmonton Indian Residential School ("Poundmaker") was located approximately 6 km east of St. Albert's current downtown area, and was operated by the Methodist Church from March 1, 1924, to June…