Rocky Mountain House

Town in west-central Alberta, Canada; population (1991) 5,500. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River, 161 km/100 mi southwest of Edmonton. The local economy is based on oil, coal, lumber, some mixed farming, and tourism. The North West Company established a fur trading post here in 1799, from which the Canadian explorer David Thompson set out in 1807 to explore the Rocky Mountains. The post was later abandoned in 1875, but European settlers and two railways arrived in the early 1900s, attracted by the farmland and the discovery of coal. Rocky Mount House National Historic Park is nearby.