The History of the People and Companies

The Friends of Medalta Society, in the context of the Medicine Hat Clay Industries National Historic District, is overseeing the restoration of a huge complex of buildings spanning two sites which showcase the companies, people, machines, and the products made in Southern Alberta during the early and mid 20th century. Each year our interpreters show thousands of people how the casting, jiggering and pressing of stoneware pottery were done. Over the past seven years we have hosted in excess of  70,000 visitors!

This facility is a tribute to a time when the determination and craftsmanship of ordinary people created an unparalleled industrial ceramic industry. Today an equally determined team of people are putting their heart and soul into this exciting restoration project. You will be amazed at the progress being made in rebuilding the original sites to their former splendor as well as the associated communities of collectors, artists and historians which have blossomed around this world-class project.

Sitting in the midst of the vast Canadian prairies Medicine Hat has the two magic ingredients that make a ceramic industry viable: quality clay and abundant natural gas to fuel kilns. Early this century Rudyard Kipling visited our city and coined the phrase "The city with all hell for a basement". He also made note of the industrious people that lived here. This project celebrates these people and the companies they built. These companies dominated the economic and social dynamic of the community.

This brick company was established on the site of the current I•XL brick and pipe plants. Clay was taken right from the hill behind the plant, and gas was available right on the property.

Purmal Brick Yards 1900

Click Here for a brief history of the Clay Products Industry in Medicine Hat.

For a list of the Clay Products Companies in Medicine Hat Click Here