Tucked into the Peace Country region of northern Alberta, Falher sits along Highway 49 within the Municipal District of Smoky River No. 130. The town serves as the commercial hub for the broader Smoky River Region, a role it has held since its earliest days as an agricultural settlement. What makes Falher particularly remarkable is its linguistic character: as of 2021, roughly 52% of its residents speak French, giving it the highest proportion of French speakers of any municipality in all of Western Canada.
The roots of Falher stretch back to 1912, when a group of settlers – accompanied by Father Constant Falher and Father Jean-Baptiste Henri Giroux – established the Mission Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Falher about 5 kilometres from where the town stands today. The settlement’s name was arrived at by combining Father Giroux’s given name with Father Falher’s family name. The surname itself traces back to a Breton word meaning “scytheman.” Most early colonists came from Quebec, with some arriving by way of the United States. When the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway reached the area in 1915, growth accelerated. The community became a hamlet in 1923 with the opening of its first post office, incorporated as a village in 1929, and was elevated to town status in 1955. The local Cree people referred to Falher and the nearby settlements of Donnelly and Girouxville collectively as meaning “Frenchman’s Land,” a nod to the predominantly French-speaking character of the communities that has endured to the present day.