Okotoks

The town of Okotoks is situated within southern Alberta, about 18 kms or 11 miles south of Calgary. The town of Okotoks though is part of a cooperative of communities within the Calgary Region referred to as the Calgary Regional Partnership. Okotoks has become a well-known bedroom community for the City of Calgary. According to the 2006 Census, the town's population has grown by 46% ever since 2001 to just over 17,000 residents.

The town's name is derived from "ohkotok", the Blackfoot First Nation word for "rock". The rock being talked about is the largest glacial erratic within the globe which is located around 8 km west of the town of Okotoks.

Before European settlement, journeying First Nations used the rock as a marker in order to locate the river crossing situated at the town of Okotoks. The tribes were traveling and normally followed huge buffalo herds for their sustenance. David Thompson explored the area as early as 1800. Soon trading posts sprang up, including one established in the year 1874 at the Sheep River crossing on the existing Okotoks townsite. This crossing was on a trade route referred to as the Macleod Trail, that led from Fort Benton, Montana to Calgary.

John Lineham established a sawmill within the town during the year 1891 along Sheep River. The sawmill operated as a key part of the local economy for 25 years. At its height, there were 135 individuals, producing an average of 30,000 feet or 9,000 m of lumber a day. The development of the Canadian Pacific Railway created a demand for railway ties and the mill helped meet that demand. Logs were brought down from the west via the Sheep River. The mill has long since disappeared however one specific building, among the oldest remaining within the township still stands. It housed an award-winning dairy and butter farm from the 1920s to the 1940s. It currently houses a law office and restaurant.

There were four brickmaking plants just west of the town of Okotoks, opened during the year 1900. Some of the first brick buildings built during the town of Okotoks were made making use of brick made locally. A lot of these buildings could still be seen in the town of Okotoks these days. The industry reached its peak during 1912, when twelve million bricks were manufactured. The outbreak of World War I resulted in the shutdown of "Sandstone" as it was known.

In 1913, oil was discovered west of Okotoks, helping the town become the supply centre for these deposits. In its heyday, from 1913 to the 1960s, Okotoks was busy with horses, wagons, and transports hauling various types of equipment to the oil fields, and crude oil back through town to refineries in Calgary.

Since the year 1974, the town of Okotoks has been hosting a collector car auction during the latter part of the month of May. It is the longest running collector car auction within Canada.

Okotoks was one of the few communities its size to have its own airport. Several small air shows were held there over the years. It was the home of an aircraft charter company, flight school, and a helicopter flying school. The location has currently evolved into an airpark community known as the Okotoks Air Ranch, where the property owners, if they wish, can build homes together with attached hangars meant for their private aircrafts.