Evarts, Alberta

Founding, village, and dissolution: 1900-1916

Evarts was first settled in 1900 by Lucius and Listella Evarts, who established a homestead beside a ford in the Medicine Hat River.^[10] A community developed in the area that, by mid-1903, required a post office.^[10][12]

As residents disagreed on whether their settlement should be named Medicine Valley or Braton, Canada Post opted to name the post office after Lucius Evarts, who was responsible for communicating with them about establishing a post office.^[12][13] Nonetheless, early residents used the name Medicine Valley for several years after. Evarts School, also founded in 1903, operated under the name Medicine Valley until 1908.^[13] Around 1905, residents of the area established Medicine Valley Cemetery, later known as Diamond Valley Cemetery.^[14][15]

As Evarts continued to expand, residents expected the community would soon receive railway connections.^[10] Evarts incorporated as a village on May 9, 1906,^[1] and reportedly had a population of 280 in February 1907.^[16] Evarts Presbyterian Church opened that year.^[11] At its peak, the community contained a hotel (the Parker House Hotel), a school, and an array of businesses including a creamery, saloon, and blacksmith.^[16][17][11] The settlement received telephone services in 1911.^[17]

Throughout its years as a village, Evarts often hosted political events or discussions. The United Farmers of Alberta often hosted debates in the Evarts.^[16] Provincial politician John Moore, who was running for a second term to represent Red Deer, visited Evarts in October 1908, though he was poorly received due to residents' frustration over not yet having received train services.^[16][18] Local media expressed that Moore was jeered at by residents of Evarts, and had "lost his prestige";^[16] Moore was not re-elected the following year.^[18]

By 1914, it became apparent to settlers that the Canadian Pacific Railway had no intention of building through Evarts.^[11] Residents began to leave the area, relocating primarily to Benalto, Eckville, or other settlements along a railway line.^[10][16][19] Evarts subsequently dissolved from village status on May 27, 1916.^[2]

Post-dissolution: 1917-present

Owing to the fluctuating nature of Evarts' population afterwards, a succession of postmasters assumed responsibility for the settlement throughout the decades.^[10][12] Services continued at the church until its closure in 1961.^[11]

The Red Deer Public School District voted to close Evarts School in September 1959, despite protestations of the residents, and students were transported to nearby Benalto instead.^[13][20] According to Evarts School District's chairman, A. Staniforth, students learned their school had been shut when they arrived for school on Monday, September 21, and found the building closed.^[20] At this time, the school had 13 pupils.^[11] Evarts' post office closed permanently in June 1969.^[6]

According to one local history society, the federal government responded with incredulity to a man born in Evarts who applied for his pension in 1976 by submitting his birth certificate.^[11] Officials reportedly requested further information in order to verify that a community named Evarts had existed.^[11] Reflecting on Evarts' status in 1977, the society wrote that it would be "hard for [readers] to try to understand there was a lively, bustling village at Evarts" at one time.^[11]

As of 2026, the Evarts site contains a few residential properties, and some abandoned buildings from the former settlement.^[6][9]