Blackfalds was originally known as Waghorn, a post office stop named after some of the earliest
settlers, Mrs. Sarah Waghorn and sons, William and Walter, who came to the area in about 1889. 
The school district was named Blindman and the railroad first referred to it as the 11^th siding, and
then Blackfalds, named after the area in Scotland that the CP Engineer came from.

Settlers trickled into the area in the 1890s, but by the early 1900s, a large influx of people poured in from  eastern Canada, Europe the UK and the US, assisted by the railroad going through the village in  1891.

 

Soon businesses were being built, accommodating the homesteaders as they arrived. Schools were
built to educate the Town’s children and all manner of commerce developed to help the community.
General stores, banks, drugstores, doctor’s office, blacksmith shops, livery barns, boarding houses,
a hotel, churches, lumber yard, creamery, railroad station, post office and houses all sprang up in Blackfalds.

 

In June of 1904 Blackfalds was incorporated as a village. Blackfalds also had a very nice public hall,
built in 1906, one of the best in the whole province at that time. The Blackfalds Board of Trade issued a pamphlet in 1905 that promoted Blackfalds as a thriving little town in a rich agricultural and ranching district overlooking the junction of the Blindman and Red Deer rivers.

Blackfalds had one of the best town sites on the railroad line. It is also on the C&E trail, which went right through the middle of town, now Broadway Avenue.

 

By 1946, the construction of Highway 2A was underway. Highway 2A now runs through the middle of the town and Alberta’s busiest highway, the QE2, runs on the west side of town.

 

Visit the Blackfalds Historical Society website for more details!