Vegreville, Alta, Town, pop 5519 (2006c), 5376 (2001c), inc 1906. Vegreville is located in the parkland region of east-central Alberta 100 km east of Edmonton. The post office and hamlet on Birch Creek, which emerged in the midst of French Canadian settlement after 1894, was named to honour the western Canadian career of Father Valentin Vegreville OMI. English-speaking and European settlers filled in local homestead land before the Canadian Northern Railway arrived in 1905. Vegreville moved immediately to the new railway townsite, some 8 km to the northeast.

The French and UKRAINIAN concentrations were noticeable from the start in distinctive churches, schools, community halls and residential clusters. The Ukrainian Pysanka Festival is a modern tradition: the town boasts a giant pysanka (Easter egg), unveiled in 1978. Serving a rich agricultural region specializing in grains and some livestock, Vegreville has been the site of the provincial government's Alberta Environmental Centre (now Alberta Research Council) since 1981.