Forestburg Travel Guide

Welcome to Forestburg, Alberta

Grain elevators rear up to the sky in this small prairie town of 900 inhabitants and an enormous 10,000-kg (22,000-lb) coal bucket sits aside the road telling of both the town’s mining heritage and its current importance to the local economy. Located 180 km (119 mi) southeast of Edmonton in Alberta's Battle River Country, Forestburg was first settled for its rich farmland in the early 1900s but enterprising homesteaders soon turned to coal mining using ‘gopher hole’ surface mines along the local Battle River. Today, Forestburg takes pride in its floral adornments as a former Communities in Bloom National Champion and enjoys its mining heritage through the Diplomat Mine Interpretive Site, Canada’s only museum solely dedicated to surface mining and home to the country’s oldest stripping shovel. Visitors can also drop by the Forestburg Historical Society Museum, which is housed in a 1920s registered historical building, for a glimpse of the area’s pioneering past or head to Big Knife Provincial Park, a popular recreational area just west of town, for boating and fishing fun.