page_title: Okotoks
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Okotoks / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Big Rock (glacial erratic). Big Rock (also known as Okotoks Erratic) is a glacial erratic situated between the towns of Okotoks and Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada (18 kilometres south of Calgary). The 15,000 tonne (16,500 short ton) quartzite boulder is one of the world's largest known glacial erratics.
context_page_description: Okotoks is a town in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is situated on the Sheep River, approximately 18 km south of the City of Calgary. The town is a member of the Calgary Regional Partnership, a cooperative of municipalities within the Calgary Region. Okotoks has emerged as a bedroom community of Calgary. According to the 2016 Census, the town has a population of 28,881, making it the largest town in Alberta.
context_section_description: The town's name is derived from "ohkotok", the Blackfoot First Nation word for "rock". The name may refer to Big Rock, the largest glacial erratic in the Foothills Erratics Train, situated about 7 km (4.3 mi) west of the town.
  Before European settlement, journeying First Nations used the rock as a marker to find the river crossing situated at Okotoks. The tribes were nomadic and often followed large buffalo herds for their sustenance. David Thompson explored the area as early as 1800. Soon trading posts were established, including one built in 1874 at the Sheep River crossing in the current town. This crossing was on a trade route called the Macleod Trail, which led from Fort Benton, Montana to Calgary.
  In 1879, the area saw the killing of the last buffalo. Government leasing of land for one cent per acre ($2.47/km²) began in 1880. This created a major change in the region.  The first settlers arrived in 1882.
  A community grew up around a sawmill that was established in 1891, and it would grow in size. The last stagecoach stopped in Okotoks in 1891 when rail service between Calgary and Fort Macleod replaced horse-drawn travel. By 1897 the community name had changed three times, first from Sheep Creek, to Dewdney after Edgar Dewdney the Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories, and later being informed by post office authorities in Ottawa of an older settlement named Dewdney in Lower Mainland, British Columbia, the name Okotoks was chosen by local businessman John Lineham. The rail line is still a main line south to the U.S. border, but the last of the passenger service (Dayliner unit) ended in 1971.
  In 2007, the energy efficient Drake Landing Solar Community was established in Okotoks.
caption: Big Rock glacial erratic
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