St. Paul, originally known as St-Paul-de-Métis or St-Paul-des-Métis, is a town in east-central Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the County of St. Paul No. 19. It was known as St. Paul de(s) Métis between 1912 and 1936. History The community was founded as a Métis colony in 1896 after missionary Albert Lacombe petitioned the Canadian government for a land grant reserved for the Métis people to farm. The colony was founded as Saint-Paul-des-Métis on four townships of federal government property which was leased for 99 years at a rate of $1 per year. Each Métis family which settled in the area received 80 acres of land, livestock, farming equipment and access to collective land, and soon after a chapel, boarding school, sawmill and windmill were constructed in the colony. The colony experienced significant hardships due to storms and a fire in 1905 which resulted in the colony's failure and termination of the government lease in 1908. One of the original structures of the colony, the Old St. Paul Rectory, a mission site built as the administrative centre for the Oblate priests remains standing today, and is designated a Alberta Provincial Historical Resource. Following the failure of the Métis colony the area was opened up to other Canadians, and under the care of Father Thérien, 450 people including French-Catholic Canadian homesteads were registered in the area in on 2 days in 1909, and the community was incorporated as the Village of St. Paul de Métis on June 14, 1912, though it was referred to as St. Paul des Métis by June 6, 1922, and would later incorporate as the Town of St. Paul, removing any mention of the Métis on December 15, 1936. The community would construct a 48 km railroad track to connect the village with the Canadian railway network in 1920, which had stopped at Spedden, Alberta. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of St. Paul had a population of 5,863 living in 2,284 of its 2,466 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 5,827. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The population of the Town of St. Paul according to its 2017 municipal census is 5,963, a change of from its 2014 municipal census population of 6,004. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the