Grande Prairie (MST) is the primary city in the northwestern a share of the province of Alberta. These are placed on the southern edge of the Peace River Country (A Peace Region or even just when "The Peace", every bit is typically locally known), which encompasses lot of northwestern Alberta and northeastern BC. A city of Grande Prairie is one of Canada's fastest growing cities & inside 2005, its population was 44,631. These are presently Alberta's 7th big city. Grande Prairie is the big city between Edmonton and Fairbanks, Alaska along the Highway 43 and Alaska Highway routes.

A city has adopted a endangered Trumpeter swan as an official symbol because it is touching a flyway & summertime incubation evidence of this big & elegant swan. For that cause, Grande Prairie is another time nicknamed a "Swan City".

Geography
Grande Prairie is placed upright northward of a 55th Parallel (look at lat/long location at the top of this web site) & is 465 kilometer (289 miles) northwest of Edmonton. A city of Grande Prairie lies at an elevation of 669 m (2195 foot) above sea level. A city is surrounded by farml& northwards, east and west. South, these are mostly a immense circumboreal woods by having aspen, black larch, lodgepole pine & black spruce extending swell into the Alberta Foothills south of the city. Bear Creek goes through a city from either the northwest in the south prevent & occurs as confluent of the Wapiti Flow of any stream south. A terrain immediately surrounding Grande Prairie is largely flat to gently rolling, however rises step by step to mountainous terrain nearer to the Alberta Foothills in the south.

A city lies on the southern edge of what is referred to as aspen parkland, which is a transitional biome between boreal forest and prairie. A Peace United states contains a northmost region of aspen parkland in North America.

Climate
Grande Prairie has the northern continental climate average of Alberta and northeastern BC. Winters come usually cold by owning a bit of modest spells. Summers come typically fairly cool to extremely caring in a daylight, however nights may be cool despite the hanker summertime times average for its latitude. Hot times across 30°C (86°F) come uncommon, occuring on the average just One-Two years a year, which is non unexpected this far northward. Winter conditions potty change hugely from either month to month. Winters keep around been known to become modest plenty to develop "brown Christmas" conditions, in which little or even there are no snow could fall until when Christmas ascribable outstandingly modest early winter conditions.

A norm wintertime year temperature is -12°C (59°F) & a typical summertime year temperature is 15°C (5°F). Nevertheless, temperatures when moo when -52°C (-62°F) & when high when 35°C (95°F) stand been recorded. Grande Prairie gets 295 millimeter (Xi.Half a dozen") of rain and 180 cm (5'8 1/2") of snow by the month on the average. Snow numbers, still, change greatly from either month to month. Existence fairly just about a Alberta Foothills, it could develop quite windy within Grande Prairie, especially in the spring & fall.

Summers might bring electric storm, although it is non when frequent nor when severe when victims farther south within Central Alberta. Rain could alter from either month to month, however a Peace Area is noted for never with experient truly severe drought conditions supplementary average of Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Although a tornaclean struck the city in July 9, 2004, which was infirm however however right plenty to flip vehicles & do minor damage, it should exist as noted that tornadoes come an extremely uncommon occurence in the Peace Area.

Economy
Major industries include oil & flatulency, agriculture, forestry, services, & technology. Grande Prairie is one of a virtually all economically diverse cities around Alberta outside Edmonton and Calgary.

Agriculture was a number one economic mainstay of Grande Prairie since personal injury settlement began in the early 20th Century, & these are however an essential a share of the local economy. The kind of crops like barley, wheat, canola and oats are grown widely in the Peace region, likewise when livestock such as cattle, and possibly buffalo(bison). Despite the latitude (northwards of 55°N), a climate is modest plenty to allow farming in a big shell to prosper. Too, daylight hours tend to become quite yearn when you took a summertime, aiding inside crop production. A Peace area is the northmost major agricultural region inside North America, and land there exists however existence cleared for freshly farmland.

Although a bit of oil & flatulency drilling has been in-going south Peace since a Fifties, oil & barking spiders exploration did non start out to occur on a big shell until a late 1970s, whilst the Elmworth flatulence field was found & exploited.

Forestry occurs as major a share of Grande Prairie's economy, for big tracts of forward lie south in the Alberta Foothills. A Weyehaeuser Canada kraft pulp mill is one of Grande Prairie's big employers & was opened within 1972. It was owned by Procter & Gamble until it was sold to Weyerhaeuser Canada in 1992. Canfor runs a sawmill & lumber front yard operation in the west side of the city. A Ainsworth OSB (Oriented Strand Board) plant opened in the late 1990s.

Grande Prairie serves when the economic & transport hub for a long term trading metropolitan area of about 250,000 humans. Grande Prairie is as well on the CANAMEX trade route linking Canada, the United States & Mexico.

Due to a fact that Alberta has there is no provincial sales revenue enhancement & that Grande Prairie is fairly just about the Alberta-BC border, there is a high number of shoppers from either British Columbia. Hence, these are non unusual to underst& the big total of vehicles by having BC numberplate inside retail and mall car park within Grande Prairie.

Transportation
the city operates a little public transit technique by having modern buses.

Grande Prairie Regional Airport serves a vicinity using regular flights to Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Vancouver, and little cities. 5 airlines offer service to Grande Prairie Regional Airport - Air Canada Jazz, WestJet, Northwestern Air, Peace Air and Swanberg Air.

Greyhound Canada offers scheduled bus service to Grande Prairie from either Edmonton & more communities within northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia.

Highway 43 is a primary highway into a city from either either the n & from Edmonton. Highway 43 meets Highway 2 the few kilometers north of a city at an intersection known locally when 4 Mile Corner, so continues south into the city via a north-west bypass & west to the Alberta/BC border.

A stretch of Highway 2 extending north from either Grande Prairie to 4 Mile Corner & west to the Alberta/BC border was renumbered to Highway 43 in a late 1990s to link sustaining the rest of Highway 43 from Four Mile Corner to the Yellowhead Highway just west of Edmonton. (This may tell you how come freshly maps there are no yearn indicate that stretch west & two or three kilometer n of the city when Highway 2) The renumbering was likewise section due to Highway 43 nowadays existence the part of the CANAMEX trade route and as well that these are existence widened to the Four-lane divided highway along its entire length. Highway 40 is a primary access road into Grande Prairie from the south.

The fresh Highway 43 bypass to go about a nor'-west side of a city from either 4 Mile Corner to touching the aerodrome is existence planned. A new bypass is arranged to replenish a todays 1. A todays bypass is no elongated functioning swell when of these due to intolerably high traffic volumes & fresh intersections. the rapid people incubation of Grande Prairie is contributing to such a high increase within vehicular traffic that snarl-up come currently non rare when you took peak hours. A recently bypass is scheduled to run construction in a nigh new, although the date has eventually to exist as determined because funding for this design was lone recently announced per provincial government.

Grande Prairie understands several vacationist running to the Alaska Highway by road during a summertime because Highway 43 leads towards Dawson Creek, BC, which is the "Mile 0" of the Alaska Highway.

Demographics
(based on data from a 2003 & 2005 civic nosecount & a 2001 Statistics Canada census) Population: 44,631** Growth rate (1996-2005): 43%** Private Dwelling house: 13,997 Land Region: 61.65 sq. klick. Density: 723.Niner population by the sq. kilometer.** Median Age: Twenty-nine.7 Median Income: $43,641

'**' - Adjusted to reflect a 2005 civic nose count. More numbers come based on data from a 2003 civic nosecount or even a 2001 Savings comparisons Canada Census.

History
Europeans fur dealer entered a Peace River Country as early as 1770. Grande Prairie began as a Hudson Bay trading post in 1881. Father Grouard, a Roman Catholic Missionary, described a rolling plains & open prairie when "la grande prairie" which led to the present day title of the city. A big surge of settlers arrived in the 1930's when farmers from either a drought stricken southern prairies come in a north to domestic the dampish soils of the Peace. A area presently produces further grain, e.g., than a entire province of Manitoba. Strategically located in a brobdingnagian expanse of fertile l& northwards, east, & west, a award quickly grew into the first wholesale and retail center for the Peace region. The discovery of oil at Leduc, in 1947, ignited a series of explorations leading to the discovery of bountiful reserves of oil & gas in the Peace. When a reserves were exploited a economy expanded & a region's people increased dramatically. The community was incorporated as a City within 1958. At that instance, its people was around 7,600. The opening of the Procter & Gamble kraft pulp mill in 1972 and the discovery of the Elmworth deep basin gas field spurred an economic boom. Grande Prairie's people went from either upright all across 12,000 around a early Seventies to over 24,000 per period the oil boom went bust in 1981. A tornado struck a downtown vicinity & east side of Grande Prairie in July 9, 2004. Although a tornado was considered a super decrepit of these (F0-F1 on a Fujita Shell) & the atmospheric condition was non severe at the period, it was however hard plenty to incur damage to houses & flip vehicles ended. Luckily, there were couple of casualties & there are no fatalities.

Education

Post-secondary
Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC), established within 1966, is the primary post-secondary institution in the city & offers degrees in two or three computer program. A present college campus was built within 1974 & expanded late in the early Nineties. Its unique architecture was originally designed per designer Douglas Cardinal.

A Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) has plans to build a freshly campus around Grande Prairie in the nigh new. NAIT presently offers a bit of computer program across GPRC.

K-12
Grande Prairie has a single public highschool, Ten elemetary/junior high public schools for Grades K-9, occasionally of which keep around computer program for favorite needs students. There exists as well a Bridge Network, a school specially geared for even students world health organization just can't or might does'nt attend the traditional high school education body due to various problems. Grande Prairie likewise has Eleven Catholic schools, one of which occurs as Catholic highschool.

Recreation and Culture
a city boasts a total of parks & links course including a big Muskoseepi Park in the Bear Creek Valley & the Sand dune links course to the south of the city. Muskoseepi Park has first-class bike trails extending about a entire length of the city itself. Muskoseepi Park besides has an outdoor swinmming pool & the pavillion by owning the cafeterithe & an outdoor pool which converts into a skating rink in the wintertime. Crystal Flow of any stream in the north-east section of the city besides has park, preserved wetlands (wonderful for birdwatching) & walking/bike paths in the area of its entire circumference.

Golfing is imaginable when late when when Eleven o'clock within the evening in early summertime due to the northern latitude. Grande Prairie has 3 18-hole golf courses nearby (S& dune, Bear Creek and Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club) and also a couple of 9-hole ones.

Cross-united states skiing & snowmobiling come popular activities when you took a wintertime in the area surrounding Grande Prairie. There is a local ski hill known as Nitehawk placed south of the city on the banks of the Wapiti Flow of any stream.

the Leisure Centre is in the north-west side, by owning swim, fitness devices, aerobic exercise & a weight room.

Ethnic venues include a Crystal Centre (a concert hall & hockey rink - a local AJHL team, a Grande Prairie Storm, plays there), a Grande Prairie Museum, a Prairie Art Gallery, & the 2nd Street Theatre.