Stettler & District History Book
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
May 2025 Update
Are you interested in purchasing the Stettler & District History Book?
The Stettler & District History Book committee is almost ready to publish our book! It covers the history of Stettler and the surrounding district from the early 1900's until the present. We expect to have the book to the publisher in the fall of 2025 and it will be available near the beginning of 2026. It will be a set of 3+ books, with about 2000 pages of content total.
If you may be interested in purchasing the book for yourself, a family member, or your business,
please fill out this form by clicking the button below!
We are trying to get an estimate on how many books we should order. We will contact you when we open preorders in the next few months to see if you're still interested.
Thank you for your patience as we work on this massive project. Thousands of hours of work have gone into creating these books and we are so excited to share them with you soon! Please spread the word!
The Committee
The Stettler & District History Book Committee is a group of dedicated volunteers that has been actively working on preserving Stettler's heritage since 2015. Unlike many small Albertan towns, there has never been a community history book for Stettler. Our mission is to bring Stettler the history book it deserves before our valuable heritage is lost.
The committee has gathered thousands of photos and stories and put in endless hours of work.
This is the official history book website and it will be updated regularly. Stay tuned for our progress reports! Preorders will be opening soon.
c. 2019
December 2023
Our Progress
Look how far we've come!
2519
Family and Business Stories
(and counting!)
20,000+
Volunteer
Hours
to date
9585
Submitted
Photos
to choose from
Gallery
Maps
Stettler's Original Street Names
Timeline
This timeline will be expanded - check back for updates!
1904
1906
1906
November
1907
1907
Apr 28
1907
1907
1907
November
1908
August
1908
Oct 13
1909
January
Erskine had one of the first newspapers in the area.
Stettler reaches village status.
Stettler officially became a town. The news was celebrated in various ways including discharging fire arms.
Other towns in the province were testing for gas and oil in their areas. With such a vast amount of coal underlaying the Stettler area, it was thought to be very likely that gas or oil was also in our area and only needed to be drilled for.
The bodies of Brainard and White, two men who were lost and frozen to death some months previous, were brought to town by constables Tucker and Black.
Mr. David Tewksbury of Red Willow had purchased a Cockshutt steam gang plow and was breaking up the prairie in good style. In favorable land, the plow would turn over 30 acres a day. He was doing breaking for the cost of $ 3 per acre.
The first aircraft experiment on the Canadian mainland was conducted at a now-extinct village, Krugerville, near the town of Stettler by the Underwood family.
Telephone comes to Stettler. First phone numbers were single digit.
Cars started to appear in Stettler. The first car was used by the German Colonization Co. in their Real Estate Bus. They could be powered by steam, gasoline and or electricity. They could be steered from the right hand side, the left hand side and or the centre with a "tiller."
Big fire in Stettler left nothing but ashes from the centre of the town to the north of it. Two business blocks were completely wiped off the map and the life of 22 year old Leslie Mellor was lost. Three hotels, a dozen business houses, and two lumber yards and stock were lost .Estimated loss $200,000, insurance $85,000.
Stettler in four years has grown from bald Prairie to a town of over 2000 inhabitants and over 100 business places (partial listing).