People share bizarre facts they know about Edmonton and some are wild

Edmontonians are revealing the city’s most bizarre facts, and unsurprisingly, the list seems endless.

A post on Reddit to r/Edmonton posed the question, “What’s the most bizarre fact about Edmonton you know?” and Edmontonians totally delivered, revealing many interesting facts and unique stories about our city.

Here are some of the most bizarre and fascinating stories about Edmonton from users.

“Edmonton was the home of Wop May, a fighter pilot who fought and gunned down the infamous Red Baron in his last dogfight in World War I,” reads the top comment.

“Edmonton is named for a village that was outside London (now consumed and absorbed into London). The original town of Edmonton had a reputation for being home to witches, and there was even a 17th-century play called ‘The Witch of Edmonton: A Known True Story,'” said another.

Many users had stories about gigs and concerts to share, including one who recalled the band KISS having their first show outside of New York City in Edmonton.

In an interview with CBC in 2017, KISS frontman Gene Simmons recalled that first show, which took place in 1974 at the University of Alberta campus.

Tony Norkus/Shutterstock

Another commenter recalled a punk show in 1984 when the Dead Kennedys played their only Edmonton show at Sportsworld Roller Rink (now demolished). “It was the last punk show allowed there as the walls were spray painted, and the place got trashed.”

“The Edmonton municipal airport was once the busiest airport in the world,” another user commented, adding that Canada and the US sent tens of thousands of warplanes to the Soviet Union during WWII, with Edmonton being the stopping point on the plane’s destination.

“The bush pilots had mapped out a flight plan across the Arctic; however, many of the military plane pilots got lost or malfunctioned, and their planes went down in the NWT,” they continued.

Nothing to see here people…move along (Flickr)