Map - Swan Hills, Alberta (Swan Hills)

Swan Hills is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is in the eponymous Swan Hills, approximately 80 km north of Whitecourt and 62 km northwest of Fort Assiniboine. The town is at the junction of Highway 32 and Grizzly Trail, and is surrounded by Big Lakes County.

It is the nearest major settlement to the geographic centre of the province. In 1989, local resident Roy Chimiuk used a minimum bounding box method to place a cairn marking the exact location at 54.5°N, -115°W, about 30 kilometres south of the town. The site is protected by the Centre of Alberta Natural Area, a 3-kilometre hike from Highway 33.

Initially a base camp for workers in the Swan Hills oilfield, accommodations and facilities were moved from a nearby site and jointly developed in the present location by the government of Alberta and oil companies between 1959-1961. Casually nicknamed 'Oil Hills', the town's official name was taken from the area of densely forested uplands in which it is located, although 'Chalmers' was also considered, after T.W. Chalmers, who had surveyed and cut the Klondike Trail through the area.

The New Town of Swan Hills was incorporated on September 1, 1959 and R.L. Maxfield was appointed as Development Officer and Secretary Treasurer. Twenty-four parcels of industrial land were sold at the first land auction in November 1959. The first all-weather road into the area was completed in 1960, replacing the treacherous forestry road connecting Swan Hills to Fort Assiniboine; the Swan Hills Post Office was opened the same year. The New Town of Swan Hills was officially opened by Premier Ernest Manning in June 1962.

Two teachers provided instruction for forty students in the first two-room school, which was quickly replaced by a seven-room building due to the rapidly increasing population as oil field workers began to relocate their families to the town. Two mobile radio units provided communications and an isolated diesel generating plant provided power until Alberta Government Telephones installed service and Canadian Utilities Ltd. completed an 138 km transmission line in 1960. In November 1965, Swan Hills became the most northerly town in Alberta to be served with natural gas by Northwestern Utilities.

Swan Hills' status was changed when it was formally incorporated as a town on January 1, 1967 making it the first town incorporated during Canada's centennial year. Tom Parkinson was elected the first mayor, serving in the position until 1971.

Situated within dense boreal forest, Swan Hills has been evacuated at least five times as wildfires threatened the town: 1972, 1981 and 1983, and twice in May 1998, when the Virginia Hills Fire, came close. The town has since implemented a FireSmart program, reducing fire fuel within and around the urban perimeter.