Reid Hill Cemetery (Vulcan County)

Nestled in southern Alberta’s prairie landscape lies the modest yet historically rich burial ground known as the Reid Hill Cemetery, located in Vulcan County.

The name “Reid Hill” originates with one of the earliest post-offices in the area. The post office opened on June 15, 1906, on the homestead of Orick A. Reid, who served as its first post-master. By that time, settlers were beginning to move into the prairie lands east of Vulcan, and the “hill” referenced in the name offered a geographic marker as much as a community identifier.

By the late 1900s and into the 1910s, the area developed a small hamlet around a crossroads: a general store, church, town hall and the cemetery were established. The store doubled as the post office when it was moved into Herbert Cooper’s general store, which became the focal point for the hamlet.

The cemetery served the local community, offering a burial ground for the early settlers, farmers and families who made their homes in this district.

The hamlet of Reid Hill offered the basic institutional trappings of rural prairie life: the post office, store, and church. According to records, for a time mail was delivered once a week from the nearest rail-line post office at Stavely, Alberta, about 60 km away. Settlers would come into “the Reid farm” on Fridays to pick up mail.

The decline of the Reid Hill hamlet—and by extension the cemetery’s active role—was influenced by improved roads, shifting settlement patterns and the economic pressures of the Great Depression. In 1937 the post office was permanently closed, and the hamlet effectively ceased functioning as a self-standing community.