The area was inhabited by
First Nations including the
Blackfoot, Plains
Cree and
Stoney before the arrival of European
fur traders in the late eighteenth century. A First Nations trail ran from the
Montana Territory across the
Bow River near present-day
Calgary and on to
Fort Edmonton, later known as the
Calgary and Edmonton Trail. The trail crossed the Red Deer River at a wide, stony shallows. The "Old Red Deer Crossing" is upstream from the present-day city.
Cree people called the river , which means "
Elk River". European arrivals sometimes called North American elk "red deer", after the related
Eurasian species, and later named the community after the river. The name for the modern city in
Plains Cree is a
calque of the English name (, literally "red type of deer"), while the name of the river itself is still or "elk river". First Nations on the north side of the river entered into
Treaty 6 in 1876 and on the south side
Treaty 7 in 1877. Farmers and ranchers began to settle on the fertile lands. A
trading post and
stopping house were built at the Crossing in 1882. This became
Fort Normandeau during the 1885
North-West Rebellion. ;Leonard Gaetz
Leonard Gaetz gave a half-share of he had acquired to the
Calgary and Edmonton Railway to develop a bridge over the river and a townsite. As a result, the Crossing was gradually abandoned. The first trains arrived in 1891. ;1900 to 1929 Following
World War I, Red Deer emerged as a small, quiet, but prosperous, prairie city. Bird watcher
Elsie Cassels helped to establish the Gaetz Lakes bird sanctuary. ;1930 to 1945 During
Great Depression of the 1930s, Central Alberta was not hit by severe drought. The city was virtually debt-free and profited from its ownership of the local public utilities. In
World War II, a large army training camp was located where
Cormack Armoury, the Memorial Centre and Lindsay Thurber High School are now. Two
training airfields were built south of the city at
Penhold and
Bowden. ;Post–Second World War Red Deer expanded rapidly following
the discovery of major oil reserves in Alberta in the late 1940s. Red Deer became a centre for oil and gas and related industries, such as the
Joffre Cogeneration Plant.
North Red Deer was amalgamated in 1948. Government and administrative services include a hospital, a courthouse and a provincial building. The railway moved to the outskirts and
passenger train service ceased. The
CPR bridge is now a walking trail. Red Deer is Alberta's third-largest city, after
Calgary and
Edmonton, with a slightly higher population than
Lethbridge. == Geography ==