Yellowhead County Heritage Survey

‘Heritage Inventory’ & Historical ‘Places of Interest List’ comes out of Yellowhead County Municipal Heritage Project. 

In 2011, the county, recognizing the need to document its highly valued historic resources, set forth to establish a Heritage Management Program, the first step of which is a Heritage Survey.

The survey captured the location, physical appearance and history of the resources and provides an inclusive database of information that identifies the historical buildings, cultural landscapes, archaeological sites and structures in a community.

The Heritage Survey serves as an important resource for Yellowhead County as a key reference for the major historic sites in the county, and for providing the county with information on the history and value of local buildings for local historical and genealogical research.

Seven community forums were held to gather information from area residents. They received valuable information and contact names of residents from which to gather historical content. In total approximately 325 sites were surveyed. A Places of Interest List (POlL) of 125 sites was created. A POIL is a comprehensive list created through community feedback and research of the most significant heritage resources in a community. The POIL range from remnants of old structures to fully functioning, and currently utilized, buildings that are still used as places of business, industry or places of residence. All buildings on the list are 1960 and older. This is an evolving document…. It is not ‘final’ as there will be additions, changes, and corrections ongoing as more research is completed. 

Next Steps

Currently, we are in the Inventory phase of the Municipal Heritage Project. We are evaluating between 30 to 40 sites through the application of Alberta Culture and Community Services’ criteria of eligibility, significance and integrity.  We plan to continue to inventory a minimum of 30 sites per year over the next couple of years.  
The Municipal Designation is on a voluntary basis only.

A copy of the report is available upon request.

The Places of Interest List (POIL) consisted of  124 Sites which includes:

• 12 Agricultural / Farming sites
• 12 Commercial buildings
• 9 Community buildings
• 8 Educational buildings
• 9 Industry buildings
• 7 Recreation sites
• 22 Residential buildings
• 31 Spiritual sites
• 10 Transportation sites
• 4 Forestry sites