Plamondon, Alberta

Plamondon is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within Lac La Biche County. It is located on Highway 858, approximately 3km north of Highway 55, and has an elevation of 555m. The hamlet is located in census division No. 12 and in the federal riding of Fort McMurray-Athabasca. HistoryThe community was founded by Joseph Plamondon in 1908 and settled by primarily French Canadians. Most of the families that eventually settled there came from Provemont, Michigan (now Leelanau County, Michigan) and from French areas of Ontario. On the outskirts of Plamondon is a community of Old Believers (Old Ritualists), a Traditionalist Russian Orthodox sect whose ancestors broke from the Church after Patriarch Nikon's reforms in 1666. The schism, or Raskol, resulted over reforms in church ritual and translation intended to better align the Russian church with Greek Orthodox practices. The Old Believers that live outside Plamondon are bezpopovtsy, or priestless Old Believers, who believe that apostolic succession ended with Nikon's apostasy and therefore have no clergy and refuse the Eucharist. Most of these families moved to the area in the mid 1970s from Woodburn, Oregon, also home to a large Old Believer community. Many also came from Xinjiang, China, by way of New Zealand, where they fled after the Communist revolutions in Russia and China.

Plamondon is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within Lac La Biche County. It is located on Highway 858, approximately 3km north of Highway 55, and has an elevation of 555m. The hamlet is located in census division No. 12 and in the federal riding of Fort McMurray-Athabasca. HistoryThe community was founded by Joseph Plamondon in 1908 and settled by primarily French Canadians. Most of the families that eventually settled there came from Provemont, Michigan (now Leelanau County, Michigan) and from French areas of Ontario. On the outskirts of Plamondon is a community of Old Believers (Old Ritualists), a Traditionalist Russian Orthodox sect whose ancestors broke from the Church after Patriarch Nikon's reforms in 1666. The schism, or Raskol, resulted over reforms in church ritual and translation intended to better align the Russian church with Greek Orthodox practices. The Old Believers that live outside Plamondon are bezpopovtsy, or priestless Old Believers, who believe that apostolic succession ended with Nikon's apostasy and therefore have no clergy and refuse the Eucharist. Most of these families moved to the area in the mid 1970s from Woodburn, Oregon, also home to a large Old Believer community. Many also came from Xinjiang, China, by way of New Zealand, where they fled after the Communist revolutions in Russia and China.