It's a common question every High River resident has heard at some point or another after the flood.

"Why would you want to live in a place called High River?"

Museum of the Highwood Director, Irene Kerr, says contrary to what one might think, High River does not literately mean "high river."

"In the early days it was called 'The Crossing' before it became a town, and the reason for that was because it was a good place to cross the river. So down where the train bridge used to be, (the Blackfoot people) had a crossing there and the river would be low enough at certain times of there year, so they could get across.

"The Blackfoot people used to camp in this area and when they did their seasonal round and came across the prairies, they would see the line of cottonwood trees along the Highwood river, so they actually called the town "Ispitsayay" which is the Blackfoot word for "tall trees along the river."

"So when High River became a town, they kind of shortened that and called it High River."

Kerr says the word "high" refers to the tall trees in the area, while "river" refers to the Highwood river.

She says another neat fact people might not know is that the name of Spitzee Elementary School comes from the Blackfoot word, Ispitsayay, as mentioned above.