town, southern Alberta, Canada, on the Trans-Canada Highway, 116 miles (187 km) southeast of Calgary. It originated in the late 19th century as a Canadian Pacific Railway flag stop for cattle shipping and was named for N.E. Brooks, a division railroad engineer. The town was incorporated by 1910. In the surrounding area, ranching and the production of natural gas are important; wheat and alfalfa have been grown since 1914, when the railway built an irrigation dam at Bassano on the nearby Bow River. Brooks Aqueduct, 2 miles (3 km) long, carries water across the valley.

More recently, Brooks has become an important meat-packing and food-processing centre, as the irrigation agriculture in the surrounding area has diversified to include vegetable crops and corn. Lake Newell, the largest artificial lake in Alberta, is just south of the town; it is noted for its bird life. Dinosaur Provincial Park, to the northwest of Brooks, was recognized as a World Heritage site in 1979 because of its abundant fossils, which are estimated to be more than 75 million years old. Pop. (2006) 12,498.