Ever wondered why a popular natural area is called Riverlot 56, or why a footbridge is called the Children's Bridge?
St. Albert is steeped in history, from aboriginal culture to missionaries and settlers to the city of 65,000 it is today.
Names of various city features, from parks to theatres to bridges, have their origins in that history, some of it less ancient than others.
Many have lived here their whole lives, and know the explanations for various place names.
But as St. Albert grows, so does the population of people who have moved here who don't know that history, and might not remember the contest to name the Arden Theatre or know that Big Lake has pretty much always been Big Lake.
The city currently has a formal naming policy in place that helps govern the naming of city facilities or streets. But it hasn't always been that way, with some names developing more organically than others.
And some names will likely never be changed. After all, some of them like Big Lake or Riverlot 56 have stood the test of time.
Riverlot 56
There is not much mystery – but a lot of history – to why Riverlot 56 Natural Area has its name.
The popular natural area is provincially-owned and protected, but its name is the product of St. Albert's origins.
The Black Robe's Vision says Father Albert Lacombe took personal charge of dividing up and distributing land amongst settlers coming to St. Albert.
To do so, he used the river lot system, which was used heavily in Quebec, where Lacombe was from. It was not as well-used in western Canada, so is a fairly unique feature in Alberta.
The idea behind river lots was to ensure all the settlers' lots had access to the river, so they were long, and narrow in width. The lots in St. Albert were numbered, including Riverlot 56.
Arden Theatre
The Arden Theatre was named via a contest held in the early 1980s, when St. Albert Place was being built.
Shyamal Bagchee had the winning submission, and the Arden Theatre's website notes his suggestion was inspired by the Shakespearian connections to the word Arden.
Arden was the maiden name of the famous playwright's mother, and a re-imagined Forest of Arden is also featured in As You Like It.
Arden is also an area in Warwickshire, England, the county where William Shakespeare was born, and there was a real Forest of Arden.
Badger Lands
The Badger Lands were purchased by the City of St. Albert with an eye for future development.
Since the 80-acre parcel in northwest St. Albert was purchased, there have been a few considerations for the site. Recreation, a branch library, affordable housing and a future school have all been floated as uses for the site.
A logical conclusion might be that ferocious badgers once inhabited the lands, but that's not actually the source of the name.
Director of planning and development Carol Bergum said the lands are actually known for the family that once lived there.
Employment Lands
It's not a particularly sexy name, the Employment Lands, 250 hectares of land perched on the northwest border of St. Albert. The city owns some land there but not all of it.
In fact, Mayor Nolan Crouse has occasionally suggested at council meetings that a more official name should be sought, potentially starting with a V and possibly tying into the city's botanical arts brand.
The hope is that the lands, which were designated the Employment Lands in 2013, will be the site of a business park that will bring jobs and non-residential property taxes to St. Albert.
The city is currently floating a few concepts for developing these lands, including a light industrial and office park, a commercial area with entertainment uses or a knowledge-based industry/research park.
Red Willow Park
Much of St. Albert's much-admired river trail system is part of the Red Willow Park system, which runs alongside the Sturgeon River.
Ray Pinco, chair of the St. Albert Historical Society, said the Cree who lived in this region referred to the Sturgeon River Valley as the Valley of the Red Willow.
Coal Mine Road
Pinco said Coal Mine Road refers to the Star-Key Mine, which was 10 kilometres east of St. Albert, along with other coal mines that were accessed along that road.
The current road is in northern St. Albert.
"There were three different mines … that could be accessed through there," he said.
Pinco could remember his parents getting coal from the local mines back in the 1940s.
Star-Key Mine opened in 1945 and closed in 1979, according to the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
The Children's Bridge
Archived city documents stored and reviewed at Musée Heritage Museum revealed that The Children's Bridge name, a footbridge across the Sturgeon River, stemmed from tragedy.
A grieving father had approached then mayor Ron Harvey about naming the pedestrian bridge after his daughter, Michele Coombs, an 11-year-old girl who had been killed in an accident with a drunk driver. Her father, Gordon Coombs, and his friends had assisted with the rails on the bridge.
While the council at the time decided to not name the bridge after her, not wanting to create precedent, the suggested compromise was to name the bridge The Children's Bridge to honour children who had died tragically and to honour the International Year of the Child.
Perron Street
St. Albert's main street was named after Fleuri Perron, who was mayor of St. Albert from 1907 to 1908.
The Black Robe's Vision, however, says when council changed the name from Piron to Perron in 1967, the claim was it was fixing a spelling mistake.
However, the St. Albert history book said it is more likely the street was originally named Piron after a family from France who'd donated the bells to the mission.
A History of Streetnames in St. Albert says Perron was born in Quebec and settled in St. Albert, where he operated businesses like a brickyard, a general store and even operated an excursion boat on the Sturgeon River and Big Lake.
He was elected to the city's first town council in 1904 and a few years later as mayor. His son Alex would go on to become mayor several years later.
Maloney Place
The St. Albert RCMP detachment was only recently named Maloney Place, but it honours one of the city's pioneers.
A plaque at Maloney Place will tell you that Maloney Place is named after Daniel Maloney, who moved west from Ontario during the Red River Rebellion, settling in St. Albert. The building was named in 2013.
During a period of unrest between aboriginal people and the new settlers, Maloney helped organize the St. Albert Mounted Riflemen, of which he became first lieutenant and his house became a temporary recruiting office. He continued to be involved in a variety of ways in the community, including being elected to the North-West Territories Council before Alberta became a province.
Fountain Park Recreation Centre
The pool and recreation complex opened in 1978.
The city had surveyed the public in 1976 about the location of the new pool facility, with 44 per cent of responses to the city's "opinionnaires" indicating the new pool should go in the Paul Kane area.
Eventually the site beside the school was selected, and the resulting recreation centre was named after that park site, Fountain Park.
Big Lake
Big Lake, on the west side of St. Albert, has almost always been known as Big Lake in one language or another.
Pinco said the name of the lake in the Cree language means big lake, which is how it was known before white settlers arrived in the region.
While the lake is now included in a provincial park and a popular place to spot a huge variety of bird species, the city's website notes the lake was a source of food and water in the settlement's early years and provided drinking water for St. Albert into the 20th century.
