Okotoks

The town of Okotoks is located within southern Alberta, about 18 kms or 11 miles south of Calgary. The town however is part of a cooperative of communities in the Calgary Region referred to as the Calgary Regional Partnership. The town of Okotoks has become a popular bedroom community for the City of Calgary. According to the 2006 Census, the town's population has increased by 46% since the year 2001 to just over 17,000 residents.

The town's name is derived from "ohkotok", the Blackfoot First Nation word which means "rock". The rock being referred to is the world's largest known glacial erratic that is located around 8 km west of the town.

A lot of First Nations tribes who moved through the region before European settlement, made use of the rock as a marker to find the Okotoks river crossing. These nomadic tribes followed the travels of the buffalo herds for their subsistence. David Thompson explored the area as early as 1800. Soon trading posts sprang up, such as one established in the year 1874 at the Sheep River crossing on the existing Okotoks townsite. This crossing was on a trade route called the Macleod Trail, that led to Calgary from Fort Benton, Montana.

The sawmill which was established by John Lineham along the Sheep River during the year 1891 operated for 25 years and was a major part of the local economy. At one time it hired 135 individuals, producing an average of 30,000 feet or 9,000 m of lumber on a daily basis. The growth 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 but one building, amongst the oldest remaining within the township still stands. It housed an award-winning dairy and butter farm from the 1920s to the 1940s. Now, it houses a restaurant and law firm.

There were four brickmaking plants just west of the town, opened during 1900. Several of the very first brick buildings constructed in Okotoks were constructed with brick made locally. A lot of these buildings can still be seen in the town now. The business reached its peak in 1912, when twelve million bricks were manufactured. The outbreak of the first World War caused the shutdown of "Sandstone" as it was known.

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

Okotoks has been hosting a yearly collector car auction in the latter part of the month of May ever since 1974. It is the longest running collector car auction within Canada.

The town of Okotoks was among the few communities its size to have its very own airport. Some small air shows were held there over the years. It was the home of a helicopter flying school, an aircraft charter company and a flight school. The site has now evolved into an airpark community known as the Okotoks Air Ranch, where the property owners, if they would like, could construct houses together with attached hangars for their private aircrafts.