The names of men literally fill our landscape: famous explorers,
surveyors, trappers, heroes, kings, dukes and princes. Women,
too, have had an impact on the way Alberta's land and water
features have been named. Burdett, 63 km west southwest of
Medicine Hat, was named for the Baroness Georgina Burdett-Coutts
who was one of the principal shareholders in the North West Coal
and Navigation Company operating throughout southern Alberta.
The Baroness was born in 1814 and inherited a vast fortune
making her the "richest heiress in England," enjoying fame
second only to Queen Victoria. She received peerage from the
Queen in 1871, and eventually married a young American who was
an Oxford graduate and thirty-seven years younger than herself.
By royal licence he assumed her name. Her wealth opened up the
developed coal mining in southern Alberta. The baroness died in
1906. Dina, 40 km south southwest of Lloydminster, was named in
1908 after Dina Sand, as she was the only girl living in this
district at the time. "Dina