City of Lacombe

The Calgary and Edmonton Trail, (C & E Trail), surveyed in 1884, was the first transportation route in the Lacombe area.  This public thoroughfare could not be fenced off or obstructed in any way, but was nothing more than a worn pathway used by wagons and Red River carts.  It was later graded and graveled.  A section close to Lacombe was later paved with McMurray tar sands.

The first person to live in this area was Ed Barnett.  He settled here in 1883 and lived in a cabin on a slight rise just north of the present townsite; on the west side of the Calgary and Edmonton Trail.  In 1888 his brother Jack, after whom Barnett's Lake was named, settled near the present Canadian University College site, immediately north of Lacombe.

A railway connecting Edmonton and Calgary was constructed in 1890 and 1891.  Sidings spaced every seven or eight miles were laid out to allow trains traveling in opposite directions to meet one another.  Siding No. 12, was unofficially Barnett's Siding.  The railway officials soon decided to name Siding No. 12, "Lacombe," in honour of Father Albert Lacombe, the "Blackrobe Voyageur" who for many years was the peacemaker missionary, first between the Blackfoot and the Cree, and later between the Indians and white settlers.

In May 1893, the first log school was started just east of the railway line.  On July 28, 1896, the hamlet was declared a village; the eighth organized community in that part of the Northwest Territories which was later to become Alberta.

In 1902, Lacombe was incorporated as a town.  By 1905 the population had reached 900.  The railway line to the east had reached Alix, and was extended to Stettler in 1907.  The Lacombe Research Center was started in 1907 on the south edge of Lacombe.  The major roadways were the C & E Trail, running North and South and the Buffalo Lake Trail running East and West.  This trail was later named Barnett Avenue and eventually named 50th Avenue.

The present highway parallel to the railway, Highway 2A, came much later.  A westward railway link to Bentley, the Lacombe and Blindman Valley Electric Railway, was very controversial and took years to construct. Its construction had the effect of reducing the trading area served by the town.  Further improvements in the road network gradually diminished the farming district served by Lacombe.

Lacombe lost out to Red Deer as the major centre on the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.  Red Deer mushroomed in a major industrial - commercial centre, while Lacombe quietly settled into its role as a comfortable, almost intimate, residential centre only 18 kilometers north of this burgeoning city.  The services offered by its inevitable large urban malls created havoc with the town's merchants.  Lacombe was no longer serving a large farming area; it was now servicing only the town proper and a small peripheral trading area.

However, where the town lost is broader trading area to Red Deer, it also could gain access to the 60,000 residents of the City of Red Deer and the thousands more in that city's trading zone.  The next chapter in the history of Lacombe will reflect its success in tapping that market.  In 1987 Lacombe was selected for the provincially funded "Alberta Mainstreet" program.  The objective of that program is to revitalize the downtown sector within an historic framework.  Given the large number of 1900-1915 buildings, downtown Lacombe lends itself well to the heritage theme which is an integral part of the program.

Lacombe and area residents take great pride in their pioneer heritage. today, the preservation of Lacombe's heritage and the community archives, as well as the restoration and care of The Michener House Museum and The Blacksmith shop Museum, is directed by The Maski-Pitoon Historical Society.