Balgonie was named for Balgonie Castle in Scotland. In 1882, the first train ran through the area on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a post office was established in 1883.[6] In 1884, Sir John Lister Kaye established a model farm near the railway in Balgonie, with the town being the easternmost point of the old 76 Ranch lands.[7]
A school was built in 1891, and Balgonie was incorporated as a village in 1903 and as a town in 1907.[6]
One of Balgonie's most famous residents was William Wallace Gibson (1876–1965), who created the first Canadian-built airplane. Gibson successfully flew his airplane in Victoria in 1910.[8] Gibson was the subject of the 1991 stop-motion animated short The Balgonie Birdman, directed by Brian Duchscherer and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.[9]
The town's population plummeted during the 1930s and 1940s, but the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway in the late 1950s brought new growth.[6]
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Balgonie had a population of 1,756 living in 621 of its 628 total private dwellings, a change of -0.5% from its 2016 population of 1,765. With a land area of 4.76 km2 (1.84 sq mi), it had a population density of 368.9/km2 (955.5/sq mi) in 2021.[10]
^Phillipson, Donald J. C. (2010). "William Wallace Gibson". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica-Dominion. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
^Brian Duchscherer (director) (December 28, 1991). The Balgonie Birdman (Stop-motion animated film). National Film Board of Canada.
