DeBolt is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

, Canada within the

Municipal District of Greenview No. 16 The Municipal District of Greenview No. 16 is a municipal district (MD) in northern Alberta, northwest Alberta, Canada. It covers the full extent of Division No. 18, Alberta, Census Division 18, and with an area of , it is the largest municipal ...

. Henry DeBolt, an early postmaster, gave the community his last name. The hamlet is located in

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

No. 18.

Geography

DeBolt is located in

Peace Country The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; ) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, where a certain portion of the region is ...

, east from

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in Northern Alberta, northwestern Alberta, Canada, within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Alberta Highway 43, Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) ...

and west of Valleyview along Highway 43. It lies in the

Smoky River The Smoky River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the Peace River (Canada), Peace River. The name refers to the presence of "smouldering beds of coal in the riverbank" noted by the Cree people, an Indigenous peop ...

valley, at an elevation of . It gives the name to the

Debolt Formation The Debolt Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Meramecian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the hamlet of Debolt, Alberta, and was first described in the Amerada Crown GF23-11 well near Debolt by G. Macauley ...

, a stratigraphical unit first described in a well located north of the settlement.

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 Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, DeBolt had a population of 132 living in 66 of its 73 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 121. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, DeBolt had a population of 121 living in 55 of its 78 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 133. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Economy

The economy is based on agriculture, ranching and oil and gas.

Forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksDeBolt Aerodrome , located north of the community. DeBolt also has a fire hall for volunteer firefighters.

Services

The community has a church, a pub, a general store with restaurant and a gas station.

Notable residents

Ken Belford Ken Belford (1946–2020) was a Canadian poet. Belford was born in DeBolt, Alberta, and grew up in East Vancouver. As a young man, he worked on the log booms of the BC lower mainland, and as a lumber piler in the sawmill camps of the interior. In ...

, a poet *Roy Bickell, a fossil hunter, philanthropist and local historian

References