The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Canada was founded on December 27, 1912 with the institution of Vancouver Elks Lodge No. 1. The influence of Elkdom quickly moved across the Dominion. Alberta's first Premier, the Right Honorable A.C. Rutherford served as Grand Exalted Ruler in 1917. Right Honorable R.B. Bennett joined Calgary Lodge No. 4 in 1929, one year before becoming Prime Minister of Canada.

The Stavely Elks Lodge was instituted on July 17, 1925 and was active until 1942-45 when it  became inactive during the war years. In 1945 a meeting was held and the lodge was restarted. It continued to grow reaching a high of 304 members in 1980. We presently have 176 members and are the largest lodge in Canada outside the major cities. Members generally come from the M.D. of Willow Creek, but we also have members from High River, Calgary, Grande Prairie, and even as far away as Vancouver. These far away members are usually people that joined while living in or around Stavely and have just retained their membership over the years. We guess they do this so that when they come back to Stavely to visit they can come out and attend a meeting or if it is a supper meeting they can enjoy an excellent meal with a number of friends.

It is worthy to note that every year we have a new leader and have only "recycled" an Exalted Ruler twice since 1945. The last time that a member was Exalted Ruler for two years was 43 years ago in 1962.

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