Altario

Altario is a hamlet in east-central Alberta, Canada within Special Area No. 4. It is located on Highway 899 just north of Highway 12, approximately 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) east of Kirriemuir and 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) west of Compeer.

In 1909 Porterfield Robinson arrived in the area and established the first post office where settlers believed the CPR Moose Jaw-Lacombe line would go. He built a store to bring in supplies for the settlers from the nearest railway point, Macklin, SK. A survey had been made, but it was still a question. Steel had been laid as far east as Stettler. Robinson named the settlement site "Wilhelmina" after his daughter and the post office was opened in February 1911. Settlers could walk half a day to get their mail if they had no horse or oxen. In August 1914, the steel came in from the west, four miles north of Robinson's site. The CPR moved a boxcar in, to serve as a station. But the first building in the new hamlet named Bideford (then Saskalta, then Altario) was the lean-to part of Porterfield Robinson’s store, which he moved from Wilhelmena with the help of R. H. Bartels and his four Percheron horses. The town was renamed Bideford (the government said Wilhelmina was too difficult to spell), then Saskalta, and the name was subsequently changed again, to Altario. A crew of young Doukhabor men built the first grain elevator for United Grain Growers. "They were a jolly bunch of young men, and hard workers."