The plaque bearing the text below is mounted within a building in a small park set aside as a historical monument to the settlers of the Stirling area. The park has a plethora of heritage 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.
As the best surviving example of a Mormon agricultural village, Stirling Agricultural Village was designated a national historic site of Canada.
This kiosk and the nearby restored railway station are open May long weekend to Labour Day, Friday to Monday. They and the village are free to visit. Stirling is 28 km. SE of Lethbridge on Highway 4.
Father of the Community
Theodore Brandley was one of the first to arrive. Businessman, mayor and church leader, Brandley left Utah on this, his fifth mission. He arrived in Stirling to lead the newcomers, oversee town development, and, most importantly, to provide spiritual guidance.
Brandley met every train, and welcomed each immigrant into his home until they could choose a farm-stead lot. He turned a corner of his tent into a store, then added a post office. Within days of his arrival, he held a church meeting.
Brandley's energy and foresight helped the settlers to thrive in their new home. His efforts instilled a sense of community felt to this day.
Stirling Agricultural Village National Historic Site of Canada
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