Longview Alberta is nestled at the base of the Eastern Slope of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta Canada. It’s a place I have fond memories of. This watercolor painting has a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy it.
Longview is known for its ranchers and cowboys who have nestled in the foothills of Alberta. The view west toward the first range of the Rocky Mountains, its cattle ranching country.  Its natural resources are principally oil and ranching, but more importantly the open spaces, the Highwood River and some of the finest beef by most standards. Some of my favorite people call it home and you can see why living there is a dream come true.
Longview is also known as the home of Canadian Country Music star Ian Tyson and I can’t talk about Longview without mentioning the Longview Steakhouse. The finest beef in North America is their main fair and once you have tried it their beef as you know will never be the same.
A Little History
The Long brothers’, Thomas and Oliver, homesteaded at Big Hill, not far from where the village is now. Their last name combined with the view from the then post office, which was opened in 1908, is how the village was named. When the oilfields at Turner Valley were revived in 1936, Longview became known as Little New York. Little New York, had a sister town uphill to the north called Little Chicago. No one seems to know how Little Chicago and Little New York got their names and both towns actually grew up over night. In 1936 there was nothing there but an empty prairie field. Then, in 1937, oil was discovered at the 6,828-foot (2,081 m) level and people, most of them long out of work because of the great depression, came flocking and Little Chicago and Little New York were born. Buildings appeared like mushrooms. For the first time in years, men who without so much as a coat on their backs or a nickel in their pockets had the first money they had earned since the depression began. Today Little Chicago is gone and except a monument near the Cowboy Trail to the north of the village, little remains to show it ever existed. Little New York was more fortunate, as it is now the village of Longview.
In 1991, Clint Eastwood‘s Academy Award-winning film Unforgiven was filmed in and around Longview, as was the television film starring Tom Selleck, Monte Walsh.