The plaque bearing the text below is mounted on a large boulder at the southeast corner of a small park set aside as a historical monument to the settlers of the Stirling area. The park has a plethora of informational plaques outlining the history of settlement and development of the area. It is at the eastern entrance to the village from Highway 4, which is just to the east.
Stirling Agricultural Village was designated a national historic site of Canada because it is the best surviving example of a Mormon agricultural village.
Mormons Colonize - Develop Irrigation
The Alberta Company of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers dedicates this site in memory of the progressive pioneers who answered the call of the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to colonize and irrigate this fertile land.
On May 5, 1899, the first band of thirty pioneers, led by Theodore Brandley, reached this point on the old narrow-gauge railway. Their first night was spent in a little section house near here. Daylight found them unloading all their worldly possessions and pitching their tents on chosen lots on the flats directly to the southwest.
They came at the invitation of Elliot Galt and Charles Magrath, officials of the Canadian North West Irrigation Company, to assist in colonization and in the development of an irrigation system for Southern Alberta. They also worked on the construction of the railroad to the west.
Over the years, most of the Mormon immigrants who came to Alberta by train unloaded their belongings here at Stirling, a staging point for settlers of this new land. Besides building the town of Stirling, they traveled overland to begin or enlarge communities of their choice like Raymond, Welling, Magrath and Cardston. From this strong nucleus, members of the Mormon Church have spread in all directions throughout Canada. They have aided in bringing stability to Southern Alberta.
We honor them for their courage, industry, and their indomitable spirit. With heartfelt gratitude, we give thanks to them for making it possible for us to live in this beautiful land of peace and plenty.
1994 No. 476 Alberta Company
From the D.U.P. Plaque
Stirling Agricultural Village
Stirling Agricultural Village occupies one-square mile (260 hectares) of land in the heart of the short-grass prairie of southern Alberta, appearing as an oasis of trees and farmsteads amid a flat, open landscape. The one-section plat is laid out in a regular grid of wide streets with each ten-acre (4.1 hectares) block divided into large lots with widely spaced, wood-frame houses, agricultural outbuildings, gardens and animal pens. The village also includes a commercial area, a school and a church.
Stirling Agricultural Village was designated a national historic site of Canada because it is the best surviving example of a Mormon agricultural village.
The heritage value of the village resides in its illustration of a typical Mormon settlement form from the turn of the twentieth century. It was introduced to southern Alberta by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who settled in this region during the Great Wheat Boom era from the late 1890s to 1914. The village of Stirling was founded in 1899 through a partnership between the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company and the LDS Church to bring American immigrants to build an irrigation canal and found two villages, Stirling and Cardston.
From the National Heritage Register