Alberta

Located in Western Canada, Alberta is one of the three Prairie Provinces. It is bordered by the Northwest Territories on the North, Saskatchewan on the East, the United States on the South, and British Columbia on the West.

The majority of Albertans live in the cities of Calgary in the South, and the central capital city of Edmonton. Northern Alberta is more sparsely populated, the major cities being Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray.

Alberta was home to a number of different first nations, spread out across the province as far back as 11,000 years ago. European settlers first came to the area in the 18th century, and started building up the fur trading industry with the native populations. After Alberta joined confederation in 1905, the maltreatment of the native population unfortunately grew worse with the introduction of residential schools, schools that were designed to pull native children from their communities and raise them in a Catholic environment.

Southern Alberta is home to Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Alberta Badlands, so named because settlers found the land to be terrible for farming, but is now famous worldwide as a fossil hotspot. Alberta is also home to the Royal Tyrell Museum and the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

The flag of Alberta was officially adopted in 1967 to celebrate Canada's 100th anniversary, and the design of the crest in the middle is attributed to a Mrs. H. MacCulley. In the crest is a wheat field (as wheat is a strong farming crop), the Rocky Mountains (which border the West of the province), a blue sky, and the cross of St. George (because the English settled the region).

Alberta was named after the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.