.jpg){kind=link}
What Vulcan is known for
Vulcan is a town of 1,769 people at the 2021 census in southern Alberta, about 120 km southeast of Calgary. It shares its name with a fictional Star Trek species, and since 1993 has held an annual Star Trek convention, building a starship replica and a Trek Station to match.
Treaty 7 land, before the name
Vulcan lies within Treaty 7, signed at Blackfoot Crossing on September 22, 1877, the traditional territory of the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut’ina First Nations. Land went to settlers only from 1883, after the bison were destroyed and epidemics devastated Blackfoot populations. It was not until 1910 that a Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor with a fondness for Roman mythology named the settler town for the Roman god of fire.
A starship, then a Trek Station
Vulcan’s grain elevators once gave it Alberta’s longest row, twelve by 1956, and the town says it held Canada’s largest grain storage capacity from 1920 until a fire in 1971. What stayed distinctive was the shared name. In 1995 the Vulcan Association for Science and Trek raised a 31-foot starship replica, modelled on the Enterprise, over Highway 23; its base plaque welcomes visitors in English, Vulcan and Klingon. A town administrator proposed a space-themed tourist station that November, and built with the county, the chamber and VAST, the Trek Station opened in 1998, holding over 800 pieces of memorabilia.
Leonard Nimoy comes home, and a premiere the town lost
In 2010 Leonard Nimoy visited Vulcan, unveiled a bronze bust of Spock in Bell Park and pressed his hand into cement in the Vulcan salute, saying he had been a Vulcan for 44 years and it was time he came home. The town had less luck in 2009: after about a year of lobbying, backed by Nimoy’s own call to tourism coordinator Dayna Dickens, Vulcan lost the world premiere of the new Star Trek film because it had no cinema, and Paramount instead paid for 300 local residents to see the film in Calgary. VulCON now draws visitors from as close as Lethbridge and Calgary and as far as Europe and Australia.
Questions people ask about Vulcan
Why is Vulcan, Alberta known for Star Trek?
Vulcan shares its name with a fictional Star Trek species. Since 1993 the town has held an annual Star Trek convention, and it has built a 31-foot starship replica and a Trek Station shaped like a landed spacecraft to match the name.
Did Vulcan host the world premiere of a Star Trek film?
No. After about a year of lobbying, backed by a phone call from Leonard Nimoy to tourism coordinator Dayna Dickens, Vulcan lost the 2009 film's premiere because the town had no cinema. Paramount instead paid for 300 local residents to see the film in Calgary.
What did Leonard Nimoy do in Vulcan?
In 2010 Nimoy visited Vulcan, unveiled a bronze bust of Spock in Bell Park, and pressed his hand into cement in the Vulcan salute. He said he had been a Vulcan for 44 years and it was time he came home.
What was Vulcan known for before Star Trek?
A grain town on Treaty 7 land. Vulcan once held Alberta's longest row of grain elevators, twelve by 1956, and the town says it held Canada's largest grain storage capacity from 1920 until a fire in 1971. A railway surveyor named it for the Roman god of fire in 1910.