Altorado, Alberta

The name may have been selected by early settlers as a play on (or misspelling of) El Dorado.^[3][4][1] Some researchers have also proposed that its name is a combination of the words Alberta and Colorado, owing to the number of settlers from the United States represented in its founding population.^[3][5]

Beginning around 1911,^[6] the Altorado Union, composed of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, settled the area that became known as Altorado.^[7] Early settlers anticipated that the area would soon be served by the Canadian Pacific Railway, connecting Weyburn, Saskatchewan to Stirling, Alberta.^[7][8] Residents petitioned politician William Ashbury Buchanan to hasten the introduction of rail,^[4][9] only for the Canadian Pacific Railway selected another location in 1913: Foremost, Alberta, situated three miles east and six miles south of Altorado.^[7][10]

By this time Altorado was a village populated by around 100 people.^[7] The predominantly agricultural community was served by two general stores, three blacksmiths, a teacher, and a physician.^[1][4] The community contained a church, Sacred Heart, that received interments at its attached graveyard.^[1] Altorado also briefly hosted a baseball team constituted of locals that played against similar teams in nearby hamlets.^[11]

Altorado held an annual picnic at its schoolhouse, inviting residents of nearby areas to celebrate Dominion Day (now Canada Day), until the community ceased to exist.^[4][12][13] The first event, held in 1912, was attended by William Ashbury Buchanan, who slept on the floor of a resident due to the absence of a hotel in the area.^[4][9] Attendees participated in horse racing, baseball, and other outdoor activities.^[13]

After Foremost's founding, Altorado began to depopulate as residents moved closer to rail connections.^[3][7] The settlement was further impacted by substantial crop failures.^[4] Altorado's municipal representatives wrote to Prime Minister Robert Borden in August 1914, requesting coal, clothing, and provisions following a "complete failure of all crops" owing to drought in the area.^[4] An Altorado post office opened in 1915, only to close permanently by February 1918.^[3][7][14]

Altorado as a community ceased to exist soon after,^[15] though some agricultural operations remained active.^[2] A post office operating under the name Birdsholm, so named because it began in the homestead of the Bird family,^[3][13] served remaining settlers and surrounding homesteads until 1949.^[16][17]

As of 2026 all that remains of Altorado is Sacred Heart Cemetery and the abandoned Sacred Heart Church.^[1][18] The cemetery, which remains open to the public, received interments until the late 20th century.^[1]

• Altorado features in the novel Napi's Dance (2012) by Alanda Greene.^[19]