Devon's residents enjoy being located a short 10 minutes west of the Edmonton International Airport and 20 minutes southwest of the City of Edmonton. The town of Devon is bounded on 2 sides by the North Saskatchewan River and sits high on it's banks. Devon boomed after the discovery of Leduc #1 on February 13, 1947. At the time it was one of the biggest oil discoveries in the world. The oil came from 5000 feet underground in a strata called the Devonian formation - hence came the name of Devon. The post-war oil boom in Alberta had begun and to this day the town of Devon still services the vast reserves of oil and gas in the area. In December of 1949, Devon was incorporated as a Village and in 1950 in the month of February, it officially became a Town. Devon was labeled as Canada's Model Town, since it was the first community in all of Canada to be approved by a Regional Planning Commission.Devon quickly grew over the years and in the early 1960's became the only Urban County in the Province of Alberta. This is a system of government that administers both the municipal and school operations. This system operated until the mid 1990's when the school division was separated from the Town and consolidated with the Black Gold Regional School District. There are numerous things to see and do in and around Devon such as the Budweiser Motorsports Park, a multiuse motorsport facility; Canadian Petroleum Interpretive Centre & Hall of Fame, built to showcase Canada's Oil Industry to the world; the Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary, a nature preserve containing marshes, meadow, pine and aspen woodlands; Devonian Botanic Garden, authentic Japanese garden, attractive floral gardens, collections of native and alpine plants, large ponds and more; NSR Jetboat Adventures, view the scenic North Saskatchewan River by jetboat; Shalom Park, recognized as one of the top ten water ski facilities in the world; golfing, camping, skiing and more. Annual Events include the Strawberry Festival and Tasting (late July), the Leduc #1 anniversary (early Aug). Today, Devon has a population almost 5,000 people and it's land mass covers about 9 square kilometers. |