WAINWRIGHT

town, east-central Alberta, Canada. It lies 129 miles (208 km) southeast of Edmonton. Founded as Denwood in about 1905, it was renamed to honour William Wainwright, a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway vice president, after the arrival of the railroad in 1909. The town is located in a mixed-farming area, but its economic base changed following the discovery of oil and gas in the region in 1929. The area was once known for its buffalo, which were moved to Wainwright Park in 1910 to prevent their extinction. During World War II the animals (which then included moose, elk, and deer) were moved to Elk Island National Park (q.v.), and Wainwright Park became a military base. Inc. village, 1908; town, 1910. Pop. (1991) 4,732.