Pincher Creek is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

southern Alberta Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. In 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017.Canadian Rockies, west of Lethbridge and south of Calgary.

History

For centuries before European settlers reached this area and inhabited it, Indigenous clans of the Blackfoot, Peigan and

Kootenai The Kutenai ( ), also known as the Ktunaxa ( ; ), Ksanka ( ), Kootenay (in Canada) and Kootenai (in the United States), are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern ...

passed through, lived in or frequented the region. The town received its name in 1868 when a group of prospectors lost a

pincer Pincer may refer to: * Pincers (tool) *Pincer (biology), part of an animal *Pincer ligand In chemistry, a transition metal pincer complex is a type of coordination complex with a pincer ligand. Pincer ligands are chelating agents that binds tig ...

in the small creek at this location. These pincers would have been used as a device for trimming the feet of the

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s and thus had some value to the group. In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police came to

southern Alberta Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. In 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017.NWMP established a horse farm in the area. It closed in 1881, but many of the troops stayed to help the town. James Schofield opened Pincher Creek's first store in 1884. By 1885 Pincher Creek had a store known as Schofield & Hyde General Store. Harry Hyde succeeded Schofield as Pincher Creek's first postmaster. In 1898, Pincher Creek was incorporated a village. In 1906, the community was officially incorporated as a town and named ''Pincher Creek''. Many residents are descendants of the pioneer families who settled there over 100 years ago.

Geography

Climate

Strong

Chinook wind Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from ...

s often blow off the mountains and Pincher Creek can be extremely windy. The

Oldman River The Oldman River is a river in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows roughly west to east from the Rocky Mountains, through the communities of Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, and on to Grassy Lake, where it joins the Bow River to form the South Saskatchew ...

and Castle River valleys seem to act as a kind of funnel for air masses, arguably making the area around Pincher Creek the windiest in Alberta. Any typical day may see wind speeds of 50–90 km/h, the most violent recorded wind being 177 km/h. The strong winds have given rise to a significant amount of

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

development in the area, with the towers and blades of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s being a characteristic of the scenery. Another consequence of the breezy conditions is that the weather is mostly sunny and very dry as the wind tends to dissipate cloud cover. The town was severely affected by a flood that hit the area in 1995 as the peak stream flow discharge of the creek that gave the town its name was 271 cubic meters per second. On January 10, 1962, a dramatic weather change happened in the area. The temperature in the area rose by 41 °C (74 °F) from -19 °C to 22 °C (-2 °F to 72 °F) in only a few hours.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Pincher Creek had a population of 3,622 living in 1,521 of its 1,661 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,642. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Pincher Creek recorded a population of 3,642 living in 1,490 of its 1,589 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 3,685. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. The population of the Town of Pincher Creek according to its 2013 municipal census is 3,619, a 2.5% decrease from its 2008 municipal census population of 3,712.

Attractions

The Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village is a popular tourist stop open year-round. It was named after

Kootenay Brown John George Brown (10 October 1839 – 18 July 1916), better known as "Kootenai" Brown, was an Irish-born Canadian polymath, soldier, trader and conservation advocate. Early life John George Brown was born and educated in Ennistymon, County Clar ...

, who was the founder of

Waterton Park Waterton Park, commonly referred to as Waterton, is a hamlet in southwestern Alberta, Canada within Improvement District No. 4 Waterton (Waterton Lakes National Park). It is located at the southwestern terminus of Highway 5, approximately wes ...

. The six-acre site is home to over twenty-three historical buildings, all on open exhibit. Each July, the village has a large Canada Day celebration, as well as hosting other community based events through the year. Among over 18,000 artifacts, historical archives are also located on site and accessible to the public. Pincher Creek is located north of Waterton Lakes National Park. The Castle Mountain Ski Resort is located to the southwest.

Government

The town's mayor is Don Anderberg.

Media

Pincher Creek is served by two newspapers, the Sun Media owned Pincher Creek Echo, which publishes on Wednesdays and has been in operation since 1900 and the locally owned Shootin' the Breeze which has been serving the community since 2011. It is also served by an online news website, the Pincher Creek Voice, established in 2011. Pincher Creek is served by Mountain Radio, a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

station based in nearby Blairmore. Mountain Radio's Pincher Creek

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

can be heard on 92.7 FM.

Notable people

* White Bird, Nez Perce leader *

Dustin Flundra Dustin Flundra (born 1980) is a Canadian professional rodeo cowboy who specializes in saddle bronc riding. He won the 2014 Calgary Stampede. That year, along with in 2009 and 2010, he qualified for the National Finals Rodeo The National Fin ...

, rodeo cowboy * Matthew Halton, World War II news correspondent *

Beverley McLachlin Beverley Marian McLachlin (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the p ...

Hong Kong Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of the High Court of Hong Kong is the second most senior court in the Hong Kong legal system. It deals with appeals on all civil and criminal cases from the Court of First Instance and the District Court. It is one of two ...

judge and former

Chief Justice of Canada The chief justice of Canada (french: juge en chef du Canada) is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court s ...

* Andy Russell, author and conservationist * Gordon Walter Semenoff, theoretical physicist * Darcy Wakaluk, former professional hockey player * Warren Winkler, former Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal * Darren Varley, murder victim * Charlie Russell, naturalist, artist * Ernest Sands, American politician * Ruth Collins-Nakai, educator, researcher, physician leader, healthcare advisor, and public health advocate * Fred Stinson, writer

Images

File:Pincher Creek AB looking south on AB6.jpg, Looking south at Pincher Creek on Alberta Highway 6 File:Pincher Creek Alberta Panorama looking south from AB3.jpg, Panorama of Pincher Creek from

Alberta Highway 3 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3 and officially named the Crowsnest Highway, is a highway that traverses southern Alberta, Canada, running from the Crowsnest Pass through Lethbridge to the Trans-Ca ...

File:Pincher Creek AB business district looking south AB6.jpg, Looking south at the business district in Pincher Creek on Alberta Highway 6

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1898 establishments in Alberta Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Latter-day Saint settlements in Canada Towns in Alberta