RAYMOND, ALBERTA

'Raymond' is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located south of Lethbridge on Highway 52. Raymond is best known for its annual rodeo and its large Latter-day Saint population.

Contents

History

Attractions

Demographics

Notable people

See also

Notes

References

External links

History

Raymond was founded in 1901 by mining magnate and industrialist Jesse Knight. Knight named the town after his son Raymond. On 1 July 1903, Raymond was incorporated as a Town in the Northwest Territories of Canada. On 1 September 1905, Raymond became part of the newly-created Province of Alberta.

Attractions

In 1902, one year after it was founded, Raymond held an outdoor rodeo and called it a ''stampede''; this was Canada's first organized rodeo event.^[1] Since the inaugural event, the Raymond Stampede has been held on 1 July or June 30 every summer.
Raymond is also home to the Raymond Judo Club, the first Judo club in Alberta. The club was formed by Yoshio Katsuta in 1943. It was closed for a brief period until being reopened in 1985 by Glenn Iwaasa.

Demographics

The 2001 population for Raymond was 3,200 with a median age of 30.9. The bulk of the population is Caucasian, but of those classified as visible minorities, 47% are Japanese, 26% are Korean and 16% are Black. In addition, 5% of the entire population is Aboriginal.
A majority of Raymondites are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the town, there are three LDS chapels and eight separate congregations of approximately 250 members each known as wards. (The closest Latter-day Saint Temple, the Cardston Alberta Temple, is located 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest in Cardston.) Raymond also has Baptist, Buddhist, Mennonite, and United Church of Canada congregations.
In 2006, Raymond had a population of 3,205 living in 1,085 dwellings, a 0.2% increase from 2001. The town has a land area of and a population density of .

Notable people

★ Cleon Skousen, conservative American author and political commentator

★ Raymond Knight, father of Canadian rodeo, world's first rodeo producer and stock contractor, rodeo champion

★ Wendy L. Watson Nelson, professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University and wife of Russell M. Nelson, Apostle of the LDS Church

See also

★ John W. Taylor

★ Towns of Alberta

Notes

1. The Raymond Stampede of 1902

References

★ Lawrence Turner (ed.) (1993) ''Raymond Remembered : Settlers, Sugar and Stampedes : A History of the Town and People of Raymond'' (Raymond, AB: Town of Raymond) ISBN 0969765509

★ Terrence C. Smith & Reed Turner (eds.) (2001). ''A Planting of the Lord : A Century of the Latter-day Saints in Raymond, 1901–2001'' (Raymond, AB: Raymond Alberta Stake) ISBN 0968969100

External links

★ Town of Raymond