High Prairie, Alberta, town, pop 2750 (2006c), 2737 (2001c), inc 1945 as a village, 1950 as a town. Located on the south edge of the Peace River region, High Prairie is 365 km northwest of Edmonton and 200 km northeast of Grande Prairie. The PEACE RIVER country was the last area of Canada to be opened for large-scale homesteading. Many homesteaders arrived after 1909, well in advance of a railway to ship their crops out.

Much of the early history of town development in the Peace River region is linked to speculation on railway routes. The Edmonton Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway constructed a line to Grande Prairie between 1912 and 1916, and the company's choice of route was crucial to the development of High Prairie. Up to 1913 the largest centre on the southern edge of the Peace River country was Grouard at the western end of Lesser Slave Lake. The EDBC railway chose not to build its line to Grouard, however, and High Prairie was developed instead as the regional service centre and railway town. In recent years High Prairie has also grown as an administrative centre and it has experienced something of a boom resulting from expanded oil and gas development and lumbering in the area.