The Forgotten History of Amber Valley, Canada's Northernmost Black Settlement

Driving along the highway in northern Alberta, Canada, around two hours north of the provincial capital of Edmonton, the seemingly boundless prairie is punctuated by a pale yellow community hall, a church, and a cemetery. Today, Amber Valley looks like any number of small, rural communities. But a couple of dilapidated log cabins hint at what was once Canada's northernmost all-Black settlement.

“It’s surprising how many people didn’t know that Black Canadians have been in Alberta for over 100 years,” Debbie Beaver, cofounder of the Black Settlers of Alberta and Saskatchewan Historical Society, tells Mental Floss. Beaver’s great-grandparent’s were part of a diaspora of over a thousand African Americans fleeing racial discrimination who found their way to the Canadian prairies at the start of the 20th century...

Read the full story at Mental Floss.