Stettler

Stettler, Alta, incorporated as a town in 1906, population 5748 (2011c), 5445 (2006c). The Town of Stettler, the county seat for County of Stettler, is located on the rolling prairie of south-central Alberta 203 km southeast of Edmonton on a creek flowing north to the Battle River. In an area first settled by homesteaders brought by Swiss-born Carl Stettler in 1903, the largely Swiss hamlet of Blumenau was established in 1905 but deserted that same fall for the new CPR townsite of Stettler.

The new town flourished until WWI, but levelled off from then until after WWII. Stimulated by new petroleum and natural gas development, Stettler again grew steadily after WWII. It remains the chief service centre for a diversified regional economy featuring grain and livestock agriculture as well as oil and gas production.