2000 – 10 YEARS AGO
• The Town of Stettler received two blooms on the Alberta competition for Communities in Bloom in the town’s first year to enter. Lacombe won the title for communities 5,001 to 10,000 with Stettler also competing with Ponoka, Olds, Vegrevville, Morinville and Slave Lake.
• New Brigden farmer Jim Ness announced that he will seek the nomination in the federal Crowfoot division for the Canadian Alliance Party against current MP and Alliance candidate Jack Ramsay.
1990 – 20 YEARS AGO
• County of Stettler won the envy and applause of neighbouring municipalities as it officially opened its new $855,000 administrative building. Archie Grover, deputy minister of municipal affairs, called the building “a credit to the county”.
• Central Western Railway is promising cheaper rates and better service if it gets
1980 – 30 YEARS AGO
• Mrs. Elaine Pitt has returned from Camrose where she was engaged by the department of culture as the soprano coach for the Alberta Honour Choir. A one-week tour took them to points in Alberta where they received excellent reviews and standing ovations at each concert.
• Seventy-five-year-old anthropologist Margaret Meed, still working and travelling, said, “I fully intend to die, but I have no plans to retire.”
1970 – 40 YEARS AGO
• Rod Griffiths of Stettler is among 62 Alberta Grade-9 students who are winners of the 1969-70 Governor-General’s Medals for marks obtained on achievement tests last spring.
• Fire of the local people taking the private pilot’s licence course at Stettler Municipal Airport have completed their first solo flights –Lloyd Clark, Peter Brockley, Ezra Gish, Dr. Roger Bruntjen and Marsha Fedick.
1960 – 50 YEARS AGO
• Stettler school board announced plans to build a new senior high school this fall to accommodate both Town of Stettler and County of Stettler high school students as required. Costs will be shared by both the town and the county.
• Two businessmen from Wetaskiwin have taken over the B/A garage north of the new IGA store on Main Street and will operate under the name of Stettler Motors Ltd. Fred Rusk and Doug Herbert have many years of experience in automotive servicing and selling.
1950 – 60 YEARS AGO
• How would you describe a 15-15 baseball game in which one team scored seven runs in each of the first two innings? That’s what happened when Stettler All-Stars played Eckville in the Central Alberta Baseball League finals.
• Stettler Hospital board recently secured the bank building in Botha for $2,200 with the intention to move it to the hospital grounds in Stettler for a nurses’ home. When renovated, it will provide 19 bedrooms.
1940 – 70 YEARS AGO
• An average of 100 guns a day have been registered by people of Stettler and district during the last week of compliance with the Dominion (Canada) government’s regulations. All persons other than British subjects just turn their firearms in to the RCMP police at once.
• Pilot Knob branch of the Junior Red Cross has been reorganized with the following officers elected – president Leland Walstrom, vice-president Leona Walstrom, secretary Dallas Holm and correspondent Doris Russell.
1930 – 80 YEARS AGO
• A number of local students will attend Normal this term – Gladys Lee, Betty Webber, Agnes McKenzie, Jean Willan, Pearl Coley, Dorothy Lone and Ada Smith.
• Don’t forget the Byemoor School Fair on Sept. 12 with livestock, vegetable and school exhibits, speaking addresses, singing, physical drills baseball, softball races and a grand parade.
1920 – 90 YEARS AGO
• About 35 ladies registered at the end of August for the municipal vote this year in the Town of Stettler. This is a distinct addition to the list, and it hoped that by next year, the majority of ladies in town will be on the list.
• Stettler Independent is indebted to some unknown benefactor for two ducks that were left at this office. They evidently came from a subscriber who does not let his right hand know what his left hand does, but they are appreciated at best.
1910 – 100 YEARS AGO
• Everybody is in a fever of excitement with the coming of the Barnes Big Ring Wild Animal Circus to Stettler. Over 200 wild animals are transported on a special train of 20 double-length cars and the show employs nearly 300 persons.
• A man never realizes the superiority of a woman so much as when he is sewing on a button without a thimble, pushing the needle against the wall to get it halfway through and pulling it through the other half by hanging on to it with his teeth.