The Summer Village of Birch Cove and Lac la Nonne - Our
History
The Summer Village of Birch Cove is approximately 99 km
northwest of Edmonton, Alberta between Highway 33 and Lac la Nonne. In 2006, there were 38
full-time residents and 60 dwellings. The village has a land area
of 0.29 km2. The village was officially established on
December 31, 1988.
Lac la Nonne
Lac la Nonne is fairly large (11.8 km2) and deep
(maximum depth 19.8 m) lake located about 90 km northwest of
Edmonton in the counties of Barrhead and Lac Ste. Anne. This is a
highly developed and popular recreational lake. The closest large
population centre is the town of Barrhead, 20 km to the north. The name of the
lake, "the nun" in French, has an uncertain origin. In 1827, Edward
Ermatinger recorded the lake's name in his journal as Lac La Nane.
It has been suggested that the name comes from the White-winged
Scoter, a duck with features similar to ducks in England known as
"the nun".
The Hudsons's Bay
Company established a trading post at the lake in the early
1800s; by the 1830s, there were many Métis, and by the 1870s, a
Catholic mission had been established. In the 1890s, several
families had settled around the lake, and by 1912 most of the
available land had been homesteaded.
Killdeer Beach Resort and Elksbeach Campground are the two
commercial facilities at the lake. No commercial fisheries exist on
the lake, although sport fishery, with the main catches being
walleye and northern pike, is very popular in the summer.
Land acquisition around this lake and cottage development on the
shoreline increased through to the 1970s until most of the
shoreline became privately owned. Many cottages have been
winterized and general lake use has intensified over the last half
of the 1900s. Due to concerns about the quality of the lake,
further development around the lake was halted through regulations
enforced by Alberta Environment."
Sammy Majeau was the first Métis President at the Lac la Nonne
Local.