Know any wacky facts about Edmonton, AB?
July 28, 2006 10:29 AM Subscribe
Can you help me put together a list of interesting and wacky facts about Edmonton, Alberta?
I am responsible for supervising a small group of my co-workers while we are attending a conference in Edmonton, Alberta. I’ll be providing them with a summary of dry details like their flight plan, hotel confirmation numbers, emergency contact info, etc. At the end of the summary I want to include some lesser-known, wacky facts about Edmonton. Some that I’ve already come up with are:
· A time capsule is buried in the foundation of the West Edmonton Mall and will be opened in September 2003 (reference).
· It takes three days at peak pipeline rates for oil to travel from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, a distance of roughly 440 km (reference).
· It’s against the Animal Licensing and Control bylaw to have more than three dogs, six cats or 75 pigeons. You’re also not allowed to have poultry, bees or poisonous snakes, reptiles or insects (reference).
· A map of Edmonton’s antipode.
Any other wacky facts would be greatly appreciated. Please include a reference for each fact. Thanks!
I am responsible for supervising a small group of my co-workers while we are attending a conference in Edmonton, Alberta. I’ll be providing them with a summary of dry details like their flight plan, hotel confirmation numbers, emergency contact info, etc. At the end of the summary I want to include some lesser-known, wacky facts about Edmonton. Some that I’ve already come up with are:
· A time capsule is buried in the foundation of the West Edmonton Mall and will be opened in September 2003 (reference).
· It takes three days at peak pipeline rates for oil to travel from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, a distance of roughly 440 km (reference).
· It’s against the Animal Licensing and Control bylaw to have more than three dogs, six cats or 75 pigeons. You’re also not allowed to have poultry, bees or poisonous snakes, reptiles or insects (reference).
· A map of Edmonton’s antipode.
Any other wacky facts would be greatly appreciated. Please include a reference for each fact. Thanks!
I would start with the Wikipedia article... there are some good nuggets in there, such as the fact that Edmonton was the home to the winningest women's basketball team in North America from 1915 to 1940, or that if Jasper Avenue were numbered it would be 101st Avenue, or that Edmonton's light rail system was the first light rail system ever built in a city with less than a million people, or that the slogan "City of Champions" refers not to sports but to the city's response to a devastating tornado in 1987.
posted by kindall at 10:49 AM on July 28, 2006
posted by kindall at 10:49 AM on July 28, 2006
You could probably include a ton of things about West Edmonton Mall.
Selected bits from their about page:
- world's largest entertainment and shopping centre
- Alberta's number one tourist attraction
- spans the equivalent of 48 city blocks
As well:
The Great Divide waterfall (man-made) is higher than Niagara Falls.
Odyssey Space and Science Center has the largest planetarium dome in Canada.
Vegreville (nearby) is home to the world's largest easter egg, standing over 9 metres high and made of 3500 pieces of aluminum.
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:03 AM on July 28, 2006
Selected bits from their about page:
- world's largest entertainment and shopping centre
- Alberta's number one tourist attraction
- spans the equivalent of 48 city blocks
As well:
The Great Divide waterfall (man-made) is higher than Niagara Falls.
Odyssey Space and Science Center has the largest planetarium dome in Canada.
Vegreville (nearby) is home to the world's largest easter egg, standing over 9 metres high and made of 3500 pieces of aluminum.
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:03 AM on July 28, 2006
The Great Divide waterfall (man-made) is higher than Niagara Falls.
True, but bear in mind that it only operates on certain long weekends (reference: City of Edmonton web page
Odyssey Space and Science Center has the largest planetarium dome in Canada.
True, but the Odyssium was renamed the "Telus World of Science" when our local phone company purchased the rights to the building's name. Reference: TWOS web site
Vegreville (nearby) is home to the world's largest easter egg, standing over 9 metres high and made of 3500 pieces of aluminum.
Reference re: Vegreville: Town of Vegreville web site
posted by gwenzel at 11:18 AM on July 28, 2006
True, but bear in mind that it only operates on certain long weekends (reference: City of Edmonton web page
Odyssey Space and Science Center has the largest planetarium dome in Canada.
True, but the Odyssium was renamed the "Telus World of Science" when our local phone company purchased the rights to the building's name. Reference: TWOS web site
Vegreville (nearby) is home to the world's largest easter egg, standing over 9 metres high and made of 3500 pieces of aluminum.
Reference re: Vegreville: Town of Vegreville web site
posted by gwenzel at 11:18 AM on July 28, 2006
While Edmonton may have the worlds largest shopping mall, last time I checked, it was in the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest parking lot in the world (at said mall).
posted by blue_beetle at 11:29 AM on July 28, 2006
posted by blue_beetle at 11:29 AM on July 28, 2006
At 7,400 hectares, Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River valley is the largest stretch of urban parkland in North America. (from the city's website)
posted by meringue at 12:12 PM on July 28, 2006
posted by meringue at 12:12 PM on July 28, 2006
Response by poster: uhh... this seems kind of strange to include since that date is nearly 3 years ago.
Bad typo. It should be 2033, not 2003.
Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone. I'm kind of looking for things that are a bit more obscure or wacky though.
posted by KathyK at 12:22 PM on July 28, 2006
Bad typo. It should be 2033, not 2003.
Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone. I'm kind of looking for things that are a bit more obscure or wacky though.
posted by KathyK at 12:22 PM on July 28, 2006
Edmonton was the home of Wop May, a famous bush pilot who fought the Red Baron in his last dogfight of WW1.
Check out wopmay.com
posted by meringue at 12:26 PM on July 28, 2006
Check out wopmay.com
posted by meringue at 12:26 PM on July 28, 2006
Up until 1995, the city of Edmonton owned its own telephone system (before it was bought out by Telus).
There are no rats in Alberta.
posted by hangashore at 1:03 PM on July 28, 2006
There are no rats in Alberta.
posted by hangashore at 1:03 PM on July 28, 2006
Edmonton first reached the Stanley Cup final in 1983 1908.
Before Alberta and Saskatchewan entered confederation as individual provinces in 1905, it was proposed that they join as one large province named... Buffalo.
posted by hangashore at 1:15 PM on July 28, 2006
Before Alberta and Saskatchewan entered confederation as individual provinces in 1905, it was proposed that they join as one large province named... Buffalo.
posted by hangashore at 1:15 PM on July 28, 2006
The Edmonton Swastikas, a Canadian womens' ice hockey team, c.1916.
Check out the picture at the bottom of the page
posted by TheFeatheredMullet at 1:46 PM on July 28, 2006
Check out the picture at the bottom of the page
posted by TheFeatheredMullet at 1:46 PM on July 28, 2006
Edmonton's Fringe Festival is noteworthy. History here.
There are also large Heritage and Folk Festivals.
Edmonton is also Canada's murder capital.
No discussion of Edmonton would be complete without reference to the weather. It's been up to 35 C this month, and most winters see a week of -30 to -40 C. -40 is an interesting temperature, as it's equally cold in Fahrenheit and Celcius.
posted by alex_reno at 4:48 PM on July 28, 2006
There are also large Heritage and Folk Festivals.
Edmonton is also Canada's murder capital.
No discussion of Edmonton would be complete without reference to the weather. It's been up to 35 C this month, and most winters see a week of -30 to -40 C. -40 is an interesting temperature, as it's equally cold in Fahrenheit and Celcius.
posted by alex_reno at 4:48 PM on July 28, 2006
Best answer: The first open heart surgery in Canada was performed in Edmonton in 1956.
posted by meringue at 6:40 PM on July 28, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by meringue at 6:40 PM on July 28, 2006 [1 favorite]
Best answer: It's the home of the Edmonton Protocol, a pancreatic islet transplantation process hailed as a possible cure for diabetes.
There's a nuclear reactor in the tunnels underneath the dentistry building at the university.
It's the setting for the film and stage play "Love and Human Remains". The pizza joint from the story is real, and has excellent pizza, despite its unparallelled and unchallenged rude smelly limited-delivery-area dive status.
The former owner of the Edmonton Oilers built a statute-contravening stone privacy wall with floodlights and electronic security around his property, and paid a rumoured and likely urban-legendary $20,000.00 a month in city-imposed fines to keep it there.
The engineering faculty at the university formerly sponsored an annual Lady Godiva ride on campus.
One of the finest and largest concert organs in North America lives in the Winspear Centre.
There's a tiny pioneer cemetery between the politely akimbo eastbound and westbound lanes of the twinned highway east of town, and a large Hudson's Bay trading post cemetery and native Canadian burial ground under the disrespectful rat's nest of roads next to the power plant.
It's geographically larger than Chicago.
There are a hundred interesting ways to drive south from Edmonton, and none of them are Highway 2.
thinking...
If you were on a scavenger hunt requiring a world-class orchestra, a beaver, a giant aluminum baseball bat, a penguin, an indoor desert, a store that sells corsets, and a statue of a dead policeman, you could win it, no problem.
Once, I saw Miles Davis here. And once, I saw a tumbleweed blow down the main drag. But I never saw either one before, or ever again.
posted by Sallyfur at 8:46 PM on July 28, 2006
There's a nuclear reactor in the tunnels underneath the dentistry building at the university.
It's the setting for the film and stage play "Love and Human Remains". The pizza joint from the story is real, and has excellent pizza, despite its unparallelled and unchallenged rude smelly limited-delivery-area dive status.
The former owner of the Edmonton Oilers built a statute-contravening stone privacy wall with floodlights and electronic security around his property, and paid a rumoured and likely urban-legendary $20,000.00 a month in city-imposed fines to keep it there.
The engineering faculty at the university formerly sponsored an annual Lady Godiva ride on campus.
One of the finest and largest concert organs in North America lives in the Winspear Centre.
There's a tiny pioneer cemetery between the politely akimbo eastbound and westbound lanes of the twinned highway east of town, and a large Hudson's Bay trading post cemetery and native Canadian burial ground under the disrespectful rat's nest of roads next to the power plant.
It's geographically larger than Chicago.
There are a hundred interesting ways to drive south from Edmonton, and none of them are Highway 2.
thinking...
If you were on a scavenger hunt requiring a world-class orchestra, a beaver, a giant aluminum baseball bat, a penguin, an indoor desert, a store that sells corsets, and a statue of a dead policeman, you could win it, no problem.
Once, I saw Miles Davis here. And once, I saw a tumbleweed blow down the main drag. But I never saw either one before, or ever again.
posted by Sallyfur at 8:46 PM on July 28, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
uhh... this seems kind of strange to include since that date is nearly 3 years ago.
posted by raedyn at 10:46 AM on July 28, 2006