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The Government of Alberta has shared a new online tool that allows you to discover the origins of place names across the province. The Alberta Geographical Names Web Map gives insight into the culture, people and history throughout our province with an interactive map of names. Whether a person wants to know how their hometown got its name, or if a particular historical figure has a place named after them, Albertans can easily search the map by name, location or the type of place.

The information listed below was taken from the Alberta Geographical Names Web Map: https://tinyurl.com/bdea5r49

Wabamun Lake:

The name was noted as White Lake on John Palliser's map of 1865 and noted as White Whale Lake by the DLS and the Methodist Church Mission. This may refer to the presence of large whitefish in the lake. The current spelling of the name was recorded in the 1896 field notes of J.E. Woods, DLS. The commonly accepted translation of the name for this deep lake is "mirror" and can be descriptive of its blue, still, mirror-like quality. 

Fallis:

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway established a station here in 1910. The post office opened in March of the same year; both were named for W.S. Fallis, an executive of the Sherwin-Williams Company of Canada, the Montreal-based paint manufacturer. It was declared a hamlet in 1990.

Muir Lake:

The lake may have been named for Alexander Muir (1830-1906), who wrote "The Maple Leaf Forever" in 1867; this was a very popular song among English Canadians and served as an unofficial national anthem for many years. The name was recorded as McAbe Lake in the 1920 field notes of P. Melhuish, DLS and was unnamed in earlier field notes for the area.

Kapasiwin:

The name for this summer village, which was officially adopted in 1918, is a translation of the Cree word for "camp". It is the oldest summer village in Alberta and was previous known as Wabamun Beach.

Hubbles Lake:

The lake was likely named for either Wesley or Roy Hubbel, who homesteaded in the area in the early 1900s. According to correspondence of the Geographic Names Programme, one of them was an entrepreneur who started a summer resort and beach on the lake. It is not known why the spelling was changed. 

Beach Corner:

A post office operated here from October 1937 to February 1970; J.P. Fuhr was the first postmaster. The name is descriptive because it is at the corner of the road that leads from Highway 16 to Edmonton Beach, now called Spring Lake. 

Duffield:

The name for the Grand Trunk Pacific station was approved in 1908 and the railway reached here in 1911. It was named for George Duffield Hall, formerly of Boston, Mass. A post office opened here in March 1913; G. Duncan was the first postmaster. It was declared a hamlet in 1990.

Keephills:

A post office operated here from February 1909 to March 1967; the name was suggested by George H. Collins, the first postmaster, after a town in Buckinghamshire, England. The community was moved in 1983 by Trans-Alta Utilities to allow expansion of an open pit coal mine, which was supplying a Trans-Alta electricity generator.

Parkland County:

The name for our county is descriptive of its landscape. The County of Parkland was incorporated in 1969 and was, in part, comprised of the old municipal districts of Inga, Tomahawk and Stony Plain and portions of improvement districts. Its status reverted to municipal district in 1995 and at that time it took the title of Parkland County.