Brooks, Alberta

Brooks is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada, surrounded by the County of Newell. It is located on Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) and the Canadian Pacific Railway, approximately 186 km (116 mi) southeast of Calgary, and 110 km (68 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat. The city has an elevation of 760 m (2,490 ft).

The area that is now Brooks was used as a bison-hunting ground for the Blackfoot and Crow. After Treaty 7 was signed in 1877, homesteaders moved into the area to begin farming. Before 1904, the area still did not have a name. Through a contest sponsored by the Postmaster General, the area was named after Noel Edgell Brooks, a Canadian Pacific Railway Divisional Engineer from Calgary.[7]

Brooks was incorporated as a village on July 14, 1910, and then as a town on September 8, 1911.[2] Its population in the 1911 Census of Canada was 486.[8]

In the 1996 Census, the population of Brooks reached 10,093[9] making it eligible for city status.[10] Brooks incorporated as a city on September 1, 2005[2] when its official population was 11,604.[11]

In 2010, Brooks celebrated the centennial of its incorporation as a village in 1910.[2][12]