Situated in central Alberta along Highway 13, Camrose is surrounded entirely by Camrose County and sits at what was once a busy crossroads of prairie railway lines. The city traces its roots back to around 1900, when European settlers first began arriving in the region. At that time, the nearby community of Wetaskiwin served as a key staging point for pioneers heading out to claim land, and the site that would become Camrose was roughly a day’s travel along the rail line – a natural stopping point that quickly attracted merchants and permanent residents. Early settlers came largely from Scandinavian countries, including Norway and Sweden, with many others arriving from the United States. The settlement was originally known as the hamlet of Stoney Creek.
From Village to City
Mail service and the first local businesses arrived in 1904, along with the community’s first Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Constable “Blue” Smith. On May 4, 1905, the community was officially incorporated as the Village of Camrose, and it became a town just over a year later on December 11, 1906. The name Camrose is generally believed to have been taken from a village of the same name in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, though no definitive historical record confirms this. Growth came quickly in those early years. By 1907, the town had built an administration building housing its first police and fire station, spent $10,000 constructing a schoolhouse, and established its first telephone exchange – with around fifty residents connected by 1908. A local power plant followed in 1911. The railway played a central role in Camrose’s development between 1905 and 1914, with lines connecting the town to Edmonton, Calgary, and smaller centres such as Vegreville, Stettler, Drumheller, and Wetaskiwin. At its peak, twelve passenger trains passed through Camrose each day. Camrose was elevated to city status on January 1, 1955.
Education, Media, and Wartime History
On June 26, 1912, the first building of what is now the Augustana Faculty of the University of Alberta was opened as Camrose Lutheran College. The institution later operated as Augustana University College from 1991 to 2004 before joining the University of Alberta. Camrose also had an early and continuous newspaper presence – The Camrose Mail launched in 1906 and was succeeded in 1908 by the Camrose Canadian, which ran until 2018. During World War II, the Camrose Fairgrounds were converted into an army training facility, complete with H-shaped barracks, mess quarters, a medical building, and a storehouse. Thousands of Canadian recruits came through Camrose to complete their basic military training during that period.