page_title: Anzac, Alberta
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Anzac, Alberta / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hamlet of Anzac, Alberta welcome sign.
context_page_description: Anzac is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. It is located on Highway 881 along the east shore of Gregoire Lake, approximately 36 kilometres southeast of Fort McMurray.
context_section_description: Anzac was named for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I, when the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway was being built from Carbondale to Waterways.
  Originally named after Willow Lake, the previous name of Gregoire Lake, the community were mostly non-status or non-treaty Cree Indigenous people whose forefathers had migrated to the Athabasca Basin area from what was to become northern Manitoba; mostly displacing the original Beaver and Chipewyan occupants of the area.
  During World War II a road was built from the rail siding to service and construct a US Army base on Stoney Mountain.
  The area has seen significant growth corresponding to that of Fort McMurray and the oil industry.
  The hamlet was ordered to be evacuated on May 5, 2016 due to the spread of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.
caption: Anzac welcome sign
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