Seebe is a former

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 ...

and ghost town in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, 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 The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

word for river.

History

With a growing population in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, 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 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 ev ...

, 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 Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

. 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 schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

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 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 () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

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 as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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 and filmmaker. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Kevin Costner, various accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primeti ...

, were filmed on the Stoney First Nations 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 natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

and

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

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 {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

is located nearby, on Highway 40 at

Barrier Lake Barrier Lake is a man-made reservoir at the north end of Kananaskis Country in Alberta, Canada. Highway 40 runs between the lake and Mount Baldy, on the eastern shore. It is entirely located in the Bow Valley Provincial Park. Barrier Lake ...

Geography

Seebe is located on the south side of the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

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

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, 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 A ...

( Highway 1) 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 mat ...

drumlins A drumlin, from the Irish word ("little 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 till or ground ...

, 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 bed ...

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.

Demographics

As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population 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 ...

, 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