Maybutt, Alberta

Maybutt
Unincorporated community
Nickname(s): The Junction Town (1912)[1]
Maybutt
Coordinates: 49°31′08″N 112°31′41″W / 49.519°N 112.528°W / 49.519; -112.528Coordinates: 49°31′08″N 112°31′41″W / 49.519°N 112.528°W / 49.519; -112.528
Country  Canada
Province Alberta
Region Southern Alberta
Census division 2
Municipal district County of Warner No. 5
Founded 1910
Government
 • Governing body Warner County Council
 • MP Jim Hillyer
 • MLA Gary Bikman
Elevation 935 m (3,068 ft)
Time zone MST (UTC−7)
 • Summer (DST) MDT (UTC−6)
Postal code span TOK 2EO
Area code(s) +1-403
Highways Highway 4
Highway 61
Waterways Etzikom Coulee
Kipp Coulee
Stirling Lake
Milk River Ridge Reservoir

Maybutt also known as "New Stirling" or "New Town" is a former locality[2] in the County of Warner No. 5, Alberta, Canada. The unincorporated community is situated 1 km north of the Village of Stirling just off the CANAMEX Corridor between Lethbridge and the United States-Canada border.

History

Advertisement poster for "New Stirling", later Maybutt
Prairie Queen Hotel at the corner of First Avenue and Front Street

On May 5, 1899, Theodore Brandley and the first band of LDS settlers arrived at the Stirling railway siding, east of present day Maybutt.[3][4] Theodore Brandley quickly started planning out the community of Stirling south of present day Maybutt.

In 1909-1910 the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had the intentions to buy up the Alberta Coal and Railway Co.[5] line that ran diagonally from Lethbridge to Stirling then Great Falls, Montana. Soon after CPR needed extra space for a junction point for the construction of the Stirling-Weyburn branch line, with speculation of Canadian National Railway bringing a branch line from Fort Macleod to Stirling.

This junction lied on Mr. William Fisher's land, a real estate promoter and newcomer to Alberta. Mr. Fisher took advantage of this and began planning out his new community, New Stirling. The location was an ideal spot for a new community to be placed. Mr. Fisher had printed many posters to send out east to promote New Stirling. Some of his posters stated "Watch us Grow to 5,000 in 1913"; others were far-fetched, as he put a photo of a yacht on the tree-covered shores of Stirling Lake north of the community, which at the time had not a tree for miles. Mr. Fisher had the idea to build a large hotel and construction of the Prairie Queen Hotel[6] began. It was an elaborate three storey brick veneered hotel with all the modern conveniences of the time such as steam heat, electric lights, and even a bar room that was never used as such. Upon completion the Prairie Queen was stated to be the largest hotel ever built in a new community west of Winnipeg.

In 1912, due to confusion between Stirling and New Stirling’s names, New Stirling was changed to Maybutt,[7] after Mr. William Fisher’s wife's maiden name "May Butt".

During the boom years 1910-1920 Maybutt had many of the amenities of a larger community. It had livery stables, a Union Bank of Canada branch, a two-storey boarding house, two general stores, a dry business, a lumber yard, three grain elevators, a flour mill, a Presbyterian and late United Church, some C.P.R. section homes for rail maintenance, an Apiary and Superior Honey Factory, a warehouse, a Chinese laundry and restaurant, a newspaper (Stirling Star),[8] a resident North-West Mounted Police, an International Harvest Machine Company and a large three-storey brick veneered hotel, boasted as the largest hotel ever built in a new community in Western Canada.

Sun setting on Maybutt

Beginning in the mid-1920 through the 1930s, the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s hit Maybutt hard. Residents left Maybutt and Stirling in hopes to find greener pastures somewhere else, due to poor crop yields, droughts, and falling grain prices. Citizens of Maybutt slowly started to pack up and leave sometimes taking their homes and stores with them, leaving just a handful of hardy citizens remaining. Today the only original buildings that remain are three pioneer houses, a grain elevator[9] and vacant outbuildings.[10]

Media

Maybutt is served by a number of regional newspapers including the Westwind Weekly, Lethbridge Herald, and Prairie Post. In the beginnings, with the arrival of a pioneering optimism, the settlement of New Stirling needed a way to communicate its successes to local residents. A newspaper of its own would shortly arrive, named the Stirling Star. The paper ran to area residents of Maybutt and Stirling for a short time, until eventually the paper disappeared over time as the area dwindled in population.[11]

In the 1980s Stirling and Maybutt also hosted the cast of a film called Pure Escape starring James Garner.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Stirling the Junction Town Lethbridge Herald Archives Retrieved on 2008-09-28.
  2. ↑ Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2001
  3. ↑ Mary's Genealogy Treasures - Stirling, Alberta by Donald L. Nilsson Stirling - Its Story and People" pages 1 - 20
  4. ↑ Events Leading to the Settlement of the Communities of Cardston, Magrath, Stirling and Raymond, Alberta
  5. ↑ History of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Retrieved on 2007 – 08-02
  6. ↑ http://lethbridgeherald.newspaperarchive.com/
  7. ↑ Post Offices and Postmasters - Maybutt
  8. ↑ The Stirling Star. Retrieved on 2007-08-02
  9. ↑ Photo Gallery Grain Elevators of Canada . Retrieved on 2007-08-02
  10. ↑ Picture Gallery Ghost towns of Canada. Retrieved on 2007-08-02
  11. ↑ Stirling Star Stirling Historic Society. Retrieved on 2007 – 08-02
 Lethbridge Coaldale Taber
Raymond Wrentham
   Maybutt  
Magrath Stirling New Dayton
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