AETNA

NAME: Aetna COUNTY: N/A ROADS: 4WD GRID: 2 CLIMATE: Mild summer,cold winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer

COMMENTS: SW Corner of Alberta REMAINS: A few old buildings.

With the steady flow of Mormon immigrants to southern Alberta, it was inevitable for new towns and villages to take root some of which would grow into permanent communities and others would fade with the passage of time. Aetna was one of the latter and is located four miles south of Cardston on highway 2. It was settled by Mormons in 1896 who named it after the Aetna district in Italy. By 1898, it had a cheese factory, a creamery, a general store, a school a hospital, and a blacksmith shop. It had everything a country village needed to be a thriving community. Like many of the smaller villages, Aetna owed its demise to the rapid growth of Fort Macleod, Cardston, Lethbridge and others and to the introduction of modern automobiles and hard-surfaced roads. Some of Aetna’s old buildings still stand and offers the nostalgia of a true ghost town. : H.B. Chenoweth

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