Fort McMurray, colloquially known as 'Fort Mac', is a hamlet in the northeastern part of Alberta nestled at the confluence of the mighty Athabasca and the smaller Clearwater Rivers. Although it is commonly referred to (and thought of) as a city, Fort McMurray is no longer incorporated. As such, it has the status of being the largest unincorporated 'city' in Alberta.

Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 18th Century, the Cree were the dominant First Nations people in the Fort McMurray area. The oil sands were known to the locals as surface deposits of bitumen, which were used to waterproof their canoes. In 1778, the first of the European explorers, Peter Pond, came to the region in search of furs. He explored the region further south along the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers, but chose to set up a trading post much further north, by the Athabasca River near Lake Athabasca. His post closed in 1788 in favour of Fort Chipewyan, now the oldest continuously settled community in Alberta.

Oil has been Fort McMurray's raison d'etre for most of the 20th Century, although only recently (as the price of oil has increased dramatically) has the oil industry caused the hamlet's population to boom.

Fort McMurray's climate is subarctic, with extremely cold winters and fairly mild summers. The average temperature in January is -19.8ºC; in July, it is 16.6ºC. Its annual precipitation is 464.8 mm, and its average snowfall amounts 172.0 cm falling over a range of five or six months.

All information on this page is courtesy of Wikipedia.