The community of Bergen is located about 120 km northwest of Calgary. Originally settled mostly by Norwegian homesteaders, Bergen celebrated its centennial the same year as the province did. Thickly forested, mainly by spruce, pine and aspen, the area offered homesteaders a sideline of working in logging camps and sawmills while establishing their farms. Later it became an area of mixed farms consisting of small dairy operations, beef herds, some hogs, and poultry, mainly for local use. Hay has been the main field crop, along with some oats and barley, but the climate is not favorable to wheat. As time has passed, fewer people have made farming their only source of income, turning to off-farm employment to help support cost-price squeezed agricultural operations. The frost-free period is only about three months which limits the variety of crops which can be grown but in some years certain individuals have even produced bumper crops of cold-sensitive crops such as cucumbers. In pioneer days bountiful supplies of wild fruit—strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries were a welcome supplement to the homesteaders’ diet. With the more intense cultivation and pasturing of the land these fruits have greatly decreased but some residents have had good luck with new varieties of domestic fruits.
Winters are not as cold and snowy as they once were and frequent Chinooks moderate the winter. It is generally a few degrees warmer here on winter nights than in the nearby town of Sundre.
The Bergen Community covers quite a large area, especially to the west, where there is no other community centre between here and the National Parks. To the south it extends to where it meets and, sometimes blurs the line between it and the Fallen Timber area. To the east it extends past the McDougal Coulee and, in some ways, taking in the whole area west of Highway 22. To the north, many residents as far as the Sundre Hill would consider themselves linked to Bergen.
Bergen has always prided itself on its strength of community. People may be too busy to visit like they once did but when someone is in trouble the whole community pitches in to do whatever the situation requires. If you ask almost anyone you meet here, they will tell you, Bergen is a good place to live.