BUFFALO LAKE VILLAGE

NAME: Buffalo Lake Village
COUNTY: N/A
ROADS: 4WD
GRID: 2
CLIMATE: Mild summer,cold winter
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer
COMMENTS: Central Alberta
REMAINS: Nothing.
According to a Colonel Sam Steele of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, Buffalo Lake Village was more of a camp than a town. Although it reportedly consisted of around 400 cabins populated by the Metis (half-breeds) in 1875, it was a gathering place for hunters and their families during the off-season. At that time, there were only two whites in the village, a storekeeper and his wife. When all the hunters and their families gathered there the population could have approximated close to 2000 people. The disappearance of the buffalo spelled the end of the encampment at Buffalo Lake. Prairie fires in the late 1889s and early 1890s destroyed most of the evidence that the place ever existed.

H.B. Chenoweth

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