Mill Woods

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Mill Woods is a district in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, south of the Whitemud Drive (14), east of Calgary Trail (2), west of 34th street, and north of Ellerslie Road. Development of Mill Woods began in the early 1970s, and for some time there was only limited access to the area. Mill Woods was one of the first areas of Edmonton to move away from the grid system, leading local comedians to joke about the "black hole" at the center of Mill Woods, which made it easy to get in but impossible to get out. As Mill Woods was maturing, it was seen by many Edmontonians as an undesirable area in which to live, because of the lack of trees, the lack of amenities, the continual construction, and the difficulty in navigating Mill Woods' loops and cul de sacs. In more recent times, the road layout of Mill Woods is seen as poorly planned and a contribution to the continued overuse of car oriented living. The highly asymmetrical design of the roads leads to limited capacity for walking and a near dependence on the automobile.

Mill Woods was originally composed of eight communities: Millhurst, Millbourne, Lakewood, Southwood, Burnewood, Knottwood, Ridgewood, and Woodvale. These communities are connected by a ring road, named Mill Woods Road along its east, south, and west extent and 38th Avenue along its north extent. Smaller ring roads, which intersect Millwoods Road, connect the two or three neighborhoods typically found within each community. Newer communities, distinct from Mill Woods, are now being built to the east of 34 Street and south of Anthony Henday Drive. Within the circle prescribed by these communities is Town Centre, a business and service core intended to allow Mill Woods to be a self-contained community. It contains a major shopping mall, a hospital, a fire station, a transit centre, a recreation centre, and a police district headquarters.

The district has 21 public elementary schools, 11 Catholic elementary schools, four public junior high schools, two Catholic junior high schools, one public high school, and one Catholic high school.

Mill Woods is graced with a large number of public parks, and is served by the Mill Woods Golf Course.

Mill Woods is predominantly white, but has a significant minority population.

With a population of close to 100 000 people, Mill Woods would be Alberta's third largest city if it were its own metropolitan area.^[1]

[edit] History

The Papachase Cree Indian Reserve, which was created in 1876, was located in the Mill Woods Area. The reserve was later sold to early white settlers, and the land used for agriculture until the late 1960s. The area's aboriginal heritage is reflected in the names of many of the neighborhoods, which are taken from the Cree language. One of the neighborhoods, Satoo, is named for a Cree chief.^[2]

[edit] References

Coordinates: 53°28′18″N, 113°25′42″W