Welcome to the Wonderful World that is Black Diamond.
.... Not really excited, trust me, neither am I.
Its a nice little town though and I do enjoy living here.
Lets start off with a little history, shall we?
This little town was founded in 1907, over one hundred years ago... 104 to be precise. It was actually discovered in the 1800s by some guy named James McMillan and in 1899 they had a coal mine going on by the river, which produced 650 tons of high grade coal. Eventually from that starting point it expanded into ranching, which is what started the town. Most of the main building on the main road are from the early settlements, although they had to be restored but that's for later! Black Diamond obviously got its name from being the 'diamond' of black coal, not very creative but it makes it sound impressive.
^ The town monument, nothing to be particularly proud of but the wagon was used for coal mining and is historical I suppose. It still has coal in it believe it or not. Behind it is the town office, which used to be a library as well but it got shut down when Turner Valley opened a new one.
Never heard of Turner Valley? Its ok, not many people do. Its three kilometers down the highway from Black Diamond, one a trail that is dubbed the 'friendship trail'. Both the trail and the highway follow along the river, with several historical places on either side. Well wonderful Turner Valley was made in 1914, a little after Black Diamond, as was build on the oil and gas. Two wonderful little towns together, no? Oil, gas and coal. Although many people haven't heard of them, the towns were the cornerstone to Alberta's oil, gas and coal industry. Turner Valley used to light up from all the stuff being burnt and 200 million cubic feet of gas daily. So, even though the towns have very little gas, oil or coal, they still have a lot of the monuments and historical sites, such as the wonderful gas plant!
Voila! The two roaring towns! They are basically the size of a small community in Calgary but the life is fantastic. And... In a larger scale map....
So the two black squares are my wonderful home. Now, remember awhile ago I spoke about main street? Yes? Well there was a reason that it isnt fully historical. In the wonderful year of 1949, 42 years after it was created, something called the Great Fire of '49 happened. No joke. The fire destroyed most of the downtown area and close by abandoned settlements were moved in, now forming Downtown Black Diamond.
But aside from all that it is a booming town of.... about 2,000 I believe. And what a wonderful welcome it is!
