GRANDE PRAIRIE

city, western Alberta, Canada. It lies along the Bear River, near the British Columbia border, 286 miles (460 km) northwest of Edmonton. Named by a missionary and settled by farmers about 1910, it grew after the arrival of the Northern Alberta Railway (1916). Grande Prairie's economy is based on agriculture, forest products, and the oil and natural-gas industry, augmented by tourism. Grand Prairie Regional College was established in 1966. In the vicinity are Saskatoon Island Provincial Park and Kleskun Hill, a site where dinosaur fossils have been found. Inc. village, 1914; town, 1918; city, 1958. Pop. (1991) 28,271.