The rich natural resources in the area surrounding Medicine Hat provided impetus for the development of industry.

[2] Three partners established Medalta Stoneware in 1916, starting with 12 employees, to prove that Canadian-made ceramics could compete with those from the United States, and that it was "equal in quality to any made in America".

[2] The plant became famous, and was an attraction for dignitaries, being visited by Lord Byng, the Duke of Devonshire, and the Prince of Wales by 1920.

[6] With a workforce of 82 employees earning an average of $3.25 per hour, Medalta's labour costs were significantly higher than those of manufacturers of imported ceramics from Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, and Japan.

[7] From England it obtained sponges, from New Brunswick came plaster of Paris, from Toronto came ground feldspar, from Winnipeg came gilders whiting (finely crushed chalk), and from Deloro, Ontario came black cobalt oxide.

[1] During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the company's officers permitted travellers to use the cooling kilns as a temporary accommodation as they crossed the country in search of work.

[1] In a building adjacent to the site replicas of Medalta pottery are manufactured, to be sold in the museum gift shop.