Drumheller /drʌmˈhɛlər/ is a town (formerly a city) within the Red Deer River valley in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located 110 kilometres (68 mi) northeast of Calgary. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often referred to as Dinosaur Valley, has an approximate width of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) and an approximate length of 28 kilometres (17 mi).
The town is named for Colonel Samuel Drumheller, who bought land in 1910 and started coal mining operations there in 1911. Drumheller became a railway station in 1912. It then incorporated as a village on May 15, 1913, a town on March 2, 1916 and a city on April 3, 1930. Over a 15-year period, Drumheller's population increased 7002857000000000000♠857% from 312 in 1916 to 2,987 in 1931 shortly after becoming a city.
The City of Drumheller amalgamated with the Municipal District (MD) of Badlands No. 7 on January 1, 1998 to form the current Town of Drumheller. Some of the reasons the two municipalities amalgamated included the MD of Badlands No. 7 having more in common with Drumheller than other surrounding rural municipalities and both were experiencing similar planning and development issues due to their locations within the Red Deer River valley. The amalgamated municipality opted for town status rather than city status so that highways within would remain the responsibility of the Province of Alberta. As a result of the amalgamation, Drumheller became Alberta’s largest town in terms of land area at 107.93 square kilometres (41.67 sq mi).
Drumheller was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of Alberta represented in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1930 to 1963 and again from 1971 to 1997.
The electoral district was created during the 1930 Alberta general election from the north section of the Bow Valley provincial electoral district and the southwest section of the Hand Hills provincial electoral district. In the 1963 Alberta general election it was merged with the Gleichen riding to form the short lived Drumheller-Gleichen district.
After redistribution again in the 1971 Alberta general election the Gliechen portion was dropped to expand Little Bow and the riding was once again Drumheller. The riding remained until redistribution in the 1997 Alberta general election when Drumheller and neighboring Chinook merged to form Drumheller-Chinook.
On October 30, 1957 a stand alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the Legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.