Alsask takes its name from a blend of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and it sits about 300 metres east of the provincial border. People sometimes think the community straddles the line, but it lies within Saskatchewan, though the local cemetery is in Alberta. It was incorporated as a village on November 22, 1910, and on November 1, 1912 it was judged large enough to become a town. By 1916 it had 300 residents.
The Great Depression hit Alsask hard, and the community struggled to hold on to its people. It went back to village status on January 1, 1947. Things changed in 1959 when Royal Canadian Air Force Station Alsask was established on 169 hectares beside the town site. By the early 1970s the population had passed 800. The base closed in 1987, and as the population fell again, the village was dissolved in 2009 and joined the Rural Municipality of Milton as a special service area on July 30 of that year.
Much of the community's heritage is tied to that Cold War base, part of the Pinetree Line. Its radar dome is one of three left in the country, and the site was designated a heritage site in 2002. The Canadian Civil Defence Museum offers guided tours on a few days each year. The "Gopher Dip" indoor pool is still well used in summer, and a bowling alley built for RCAF families and local residents is also part of the site. The Old Alsask School, open from 1913 to 1976, was restored in 2002 as a community centre and is a Municipal Heritage Property.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Alsask” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.