It is on Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway, approximately 186 km (116 mi) southeast of Calgary, and 110 km (68 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat.

After Treaty 7 was signed in 1877, homesteaders took advantage of the Dominion Lands Act to move into the area to begin farming.

Through a contest sponsored by the Postmaster General, the area was named after Noel Edgell Brooks, a Canadian Pacific Railway Divisional Engineer from Calgary.

[9] In the 1996 Census, the population of Brooks reached 10,093[10] making it eligible for city status.

[34] A multicultural community, Brooks has been referred to as "The City of 100 Hellos" as a result of a documentary by Brandy Yanchyk profiling the community's significant immigrant, refugee and temporary foreign worker populations.

The documentary was called Brooks – The City of 100 Hellos and was created in 2010 for Omni Television.

[35] The community's multicultural character was also the subject of a 2007 National Film Board of Canada documentary, 24 Days in Brooks, directed by Dana Inkster.

[36] Brooks has the highest proportion of Black Canadians of any census subdivision in Canada.

Wide diurnal temperature ranges are regular, due to the aridity and moderately high elevation.

Most of the relatively scant annual precipitation occurs in late spring and summer, often in the form of thunderstorms.

[45] The base of the economy of the City of Brooks is energy (oil and gas) and agriculture,[50] with other sectors including metal manufacturing,[51] food processing and construction.

In 2012, while the plant was owned by XL Foods, it released meat contaminated with E. coli, and was shut down for a month.

Also in 2010, the Centennial Regional Arena was completed after nearly a decade of planning and 18 months of construction.

[56] They have helped produce current NHL players such as Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche) and Chad Johnson.

The teams comprise players from the local junior and senior high schools respectively.

The Buffalos represented Brooks at provincial championships in 1989, 1995, 1997, and 2009, winning in the title in its last three appearances.