Lacombe's downtown has been named as one of the best eight within the Canadian prairies.
According to WorldAtlas.com, Lacombe's downtown, for starters, is renowned for its historic murals.
"50 Ave. is where all the action happens, and is the site of the Lacombe Memorial Centre which hosts events in its lovely park," noted the web site.
"The Flatiron Building Museum is (also) the go-to structure for photographers and architects to marvel at. With so much to do in this area, a variety of restaurants, including ONA Cafe + Bakery and Moe's Pizza Co. They eagerly await patrons looking for hearty meals and warm hospitality."
Mayor Grant Creasey was very pleased to hear about the kudos.
"With so many people who are so proud of Lacombe, and how it's such a great place to call home, it's nice to see it being formally recognized," he said.
Other communities that made the cut in Alberta included Didsbury, Nanton, and Strathmore. Others beyond the province included the Manitoba communities of Winkler, Morden, Steinbach, and Selkirk.
"It really is the combination of a lot of things," said Creasey of the honour. "Certainly, the businesses that are there. And I think it's the people that do make it special.
"It's why people like to go there, and also why it's so widely known," he said.
Also fuelling the momentum behind Lacombe's downtown development is the Lacombe Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan (DARP), which guides land use and development decisions within the downtown boundary.
"It's another great example of people's involvement. You just can't say enough about them."
WorldAtlas.com was launched in 1994 as the passion project of cartographer John Moen and his wife Chris Woolwine-Moen.
"Today, WorldAtlas is one of the largest publishing resources in geography and other topics it covers, including sociology, demography, environment, economics, politics, and travel," noted the website.
"In 2019 alone, WorldAtlas served over 165 million readers from around the world. We are proud to be a resource to both educators and students, and to be a source of information to those who are simply curious about the world they live in."
