Seebe is a former

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada, within the Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8. It is a former Calgary Power Company Ltd. employee townsite that was closed on August 31, 2004. The name Seebe comes from the Cree word for river.

Geography and geology

Seebe is located on the south side of the

Bow River The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These ...

, adjacent to the Seebe Dam. It is east of Highway 1X, north of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...

(

Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered ...

) and south of Highway 1A. Seebe is just downstream from the confluence of the Bow and Kananaskis rivers at Kananakis Falls. Horseshoe Falls (Alberta) is downstream. Seebe has great vistas of the face of Yamnuska Mountain to the north, Pigeon Mountain and the Kananaskis Valley to the south, Loder Peak and the Bow Valley to the west, and opening onto the prairie grasslands and the Bow Valley to the east. The underlying substrate in the area is sedimentary interbedded shale, sandstone and limestone. At the surface, there are areas of

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

with very little

topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matte ...

drumlins A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...

, and small pockets of fertile alluvial deposits. The interbedded

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...

is tilted, being part of the disturbed zone adjacent to the

Rockies The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

, thus, the falls on the Bow River, and the potential for hydroelectric power generation.

History

With a growing population in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

, and electricity becoming a standard form of power, the Calgary Power Company Ltd. was formed in the early 20th century. In 1911, a

hydro-electric dam Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined ...

was built at Horseshoe Falls. In 1929, another hydro plant and dam was built at the Kananaskis Falls. This dam is now on Highway 1X, which connects the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) with Highway 1A (the former alignment of the Trans-Canada Highway). As Calgary grew, the Calgary Power Company Ltd. grew, with hydro dams being developed up and down the Bow River. Seebe became the technical hub, remotely controlling water flow from the Spray, Ghost, Kananaskis, Lake Minnewanka, Brazeau,

North Saskatchewan The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows even ...

, and other watersheds, so that power could be produced efficiently. The control centre also could bring on more power from the coal-fired plants in the Wabamun area, west of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

. The control centre at Seebe also once was the operations hub, while the head office was in Calgary. Seebe consisted of the company store and post office next to the Kananaskis plant. There were several residences close by. There were also two residences at the Horseshoe plant. But the larger concentration of housing was about downstream from the Kananaskis plant, and about upstream from the Horseshoe plant. As the community and area grew, a

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

was opened in 1918. The Seebe School was the last operating one-room school in Alberta, closing in 1996. Students from the local dude ranches, forestry, government and others also attended the school. An area of about encompassing the former townsite and dams was leased by Calgary Power from the Stoney Tribe, a member of the

Treaty Seven Treaty 7 is an agreement between the Crown and several, mainly Blackfoot Confederacy, Blackfoot, First Nations in Canada, First Nation band governments in what is today the southern portion of Alberta. The idea of developing treaties for Black ...

Nations. They are now known by their own name, Nakoda. The lease area is bound by the Kananaskis River to the west, the

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

rail line to the south, the Bow River to the north and a north/south about downstream from the Horseshoe plant to the east. The lease was used as common area for recreation, horse pasture, bird watching, fishing, camping and other purposes.

World War II

Camp 130, a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military priso ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, was located in Seebe.

"The Kananaskis Prisoner Of War camp (No. 130), also known as Seebe for the nearby hamlet, operated from 29 September 1939 to 28 January 1946. Locals referred to this facility as Camp "Kan-A-Nazi". Seebe was small with a capacity of 200 prisoners of war (POWs)."

Recent history

Scenes from the movie ''

Open Range In the Western United States and Canada, open range is rangeland where cattle roam freely regardless of land ownership. Where there are "open range" laws, those wanting to keep animals off their property must erect a fence to keep animals out; th ...

'', starring and directed by

Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors ...

, were filmed on the Stony Indian Reserve directly across the Bow River from Seebe in 2003 when it was still an inhabited hamlet. At that time, Seebe still had a small general store, a café and a post office all in one small building. The AltaEnergy employee housing and one dormitory was further down the road but considered private property. It was closed down a couple of years later and many of the houses were sold and moved. In 2006/2007, a proposal emerged to redevelop the townsite as a new community, retaining the same name, with an approximately population of 5,600 people at full build-out. An

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their biophysical environment, physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosy ...

and environmental

research station Research stations are facilities where scientific investigation, Data collection, collection, analysis and experimentation occurs. A research station is a facility that is built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. There are also man ...

of the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being inst ...

is located nearby, on Highway 40 at Barrier Lake.

Demographics

As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Seebe recorded a population of 0 living in 0 of its 0 total private dwellings, no change from its 2011 population of 0. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. As a designated place in the 2011 Census, Seebe had a population of 0 living in 0 of its 0 total dwellings, a 0% change from its 2006 population of 0. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2011.

References