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Exshaw | |
|---|---|
Hamlet | |
 Heart Mountain and the Cement Plant atExshaw. Community is east (left) of the plant. | |
  Location of Exshaw inAlberta | |
| Coordinates:51°03′42″N115°09′46″W / 51.0617°N 115.1628°W /51.0617; -115.1628 | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Alberta |
| Region | Alberta's Rockies |
| Census division | 15 |
| Municipal district | M.D. of Bighorn No. 8 |
| Government | |
| • Type | unincorporated |
| • Governing body | M.D. of Bighorn No. 8 Council |
| Area (2021)[1] | |
| • Land | 1.55 km2 (0.60 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[1] | |
• Total | 449 |
| • Density | 289.3/km2 (749/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC−7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−6 (MDT) |
| Area codes | 403,587, 825 |
Exshaw is ahamlet inAlberta, Canada, withinMunicipal District (MD) of Bighorn No. 8.[2] Located approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) west of downtownCalgary and 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east ofCanmore, Exshaw is situated within theBow River valley north of theBow River.
The hamlet was once located within Rocky Mountains Park laterBanff National Park, with the original park entrance being only a couple miles east of Exshaw.
SirSanford Fleming named Exshaw after his son-in-law,E. William Exshaw (15 February 1866,Bordeaux – 16 March 1927; of Anglo-Irish descent; andsailing Olympic gold medalist at the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics), who with Fleming helped establish the Western Canada Cement and Coal Company. William Exshaw visited in 1908 when a banquet was held in his honour by the staff of WCC&C.
Robert D. Hassan, an American mechanical engineer, was hired in 1906 to build a mill in Exshaw, Alberta for the Western Canada Cement and Coal Company. He was assisted in building the plant byAlexander Graham Christie. In 1911, the plant was acquired by theCanada Cement Company.
Although the original cement plant was further west, the community has had a large plant for many years.
In the 1970s, a portion of Exshaw was demolished – 47 homes, a church, and a school – to make way for expansion of the cement plant.[3]
East of Exshaw are smallercompany town communities of Kananaskis (lime plant), which is not therecreational area of the same name, andSeebe (power dam), which is now closed but proposed for future residential redevelopment. A smallranch area, now mainlydude ranches, is also near the hamlet. Of note is the Brewster's Kananaskis Ranch & Golf Course, which sits on the original homestead property of Bud Brewster and has remained in the family's possession since the 1880s.
A number of smaller parks with camping facilities have also developed in the eastBow Valley. Directly across the Bow River south from Exshaw is the Hamlet of Lac des Arcs although no bridge connects the two hamlets.
A dam on theBow River is east of Seebe.
The smaller Exshaw Mountain, 1,783 metres (5,850 feet), is north of the hamlet, and is locally known asCougar Mountain. Across from the community south beyond Lac des Arcs isHeart Mountain is easier to scale. This mountain is sometimes used as a wedding venue because of the heart shape.
Exshaw Creek, locally known and identified on theHighway 1A bridge as Canyon Creek, runs through the hamlet. In 1958,Alan McGugan et al., identified a new species of thepelecypodMegalodon in a river cliff of Exshaw Creek and gave the newspecific nameM. banffensis, for the proximity of theBanff area.
The eastern portion of the hamlet is on the flood plain for Jura Creek. In 1937, P.S. Warren described outcrops on the banks of Jura Creek, naming these theExshaw Formation. The Jura Creek valley is known to provide a good introduction to some Front Range geology, with the exposed formations including the Palliser (Devonian), Exshaw and Banff (Mississippian). The naming of Jura Creek was from misidentified Jurassic fossils, which are actuallyPaleozoic, notJurassic.
Grotto Creek, 3 km west, has pictographs, including a possible "fluteplayer"Kokopelli image that may[according to whom?] be from theFlute Clan of theHopi tradition.
The local area is known for wildlife, despite the industrial development.Duncan MacGillivray, with explorerDavid Thompson on his survey of the Canadian Rockies, first encountered abighorn sheep, near Exshaw, on 30 November 1800, which led to the specimens collected and subsequent scientific naming. Mount MacGillivray, to the west of Heart Mountain, is his namesake.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 308 | — |
| 1951 | 538 | +74.7% |
| 1956 | 608 | +13.0% |
| 1961 | 678 | +11.5% |
| 1966 | 587 | −13.4% |
| 1971 | 548 | −6.6% |
| 1976 | 389 | −29.0% |
| 1981 | 353 | −9.3% |
| 1986 | 348 | −1.4% |
| 1991 | 383 | +10.1% |
| 1991A | 386 | +0.8% |
| 1996 | 374 | −3.1% |
| 2001 | 231 | −38.2% |
| 2006 | 382 | +65.4% |
| 2011 | 362 | −5.2% |
| 2016 | 412 | +13.8% |
| 2021 | 449 | +9.0% |
| Source:Statistics Canada [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][1] | ||
In the2021 Census of Population conducted byStatistics Canada, Exshaw had a population of 449 living in 170 of its 185 total private dwellings, a change of9% from its 2016 population of 412. With a land area of 1.55 km2 (0.60 sq mi), it had a population density of289.7/km2 (750.3/sq mi) in 2021.[1]
As a designated place in the2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Exshaw had a population of 412 living in 164 of its 178 total private dwellings, a change of13.8% from its 2011 population of 362. With a land area of 1.58 km2 (0.61 sq mi), it had a population density of260.8/km2 (675.4/sq mi) in 2016.[17]
The cement plant, now owned byLafarge North America, is the main industry in the community. The limestone is quarried on the mountain north of the plant.
A number of other plants and quarries are in the area east and west, such asBaymag'smagnesium oxidecalcination plant, with technology that minimizes energy consumption,[18] andGraymont Inc'slime and limestone products plant.
Baymag had its 40th anniversary in 2022; it had one year earlier reached a milestone of 150,000 metrictonnes per annum capacity.[18]
Exshaw is the largest hamlet in the M.D. of Bighorn No. 8, which also includes the hamlets ofBenchlands,Dead Man's Flats,Harvie Heights andLac des Arcs, as well as rural ranchland west ofCochrane. The M.D. of Bighorn No. 8'smunicipal office is located in Exshaw.
Places adjacent to Exshaw | |
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