Province (pop., 2001: 2,974,807), Canada, westernmost of three Prairie Provinces.
With an area of 255,287 sq mi (661,190 sq km), Alberta is bordered by Saskatchewan, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the U.S. Its capital is Edmonton . Long inhabited by various Indian peoples, the area was explored by Europeans in the 1750s. It eventually came under the rule of the Hudson's Bay Co. , which transferred it to the Dominion of Canada in 1870. It was made part of the Northwest Territories in 1882. Its population grew with the coming of the railroads and the expansion of wheat farming. Alberta was made a province in 1905. Once dependent on agriculture, it underwent economic growth with the discovery of oil in 1947 and the ensuing discovery of other major oil and gas deposits.