Alma

Alma is a small village in the east of Mapleton, where the old Elora Saugeen Road forms the main street. Wallace Cummings Park, built in 2003 on 25 hectares of donated land, has a playground, a 1 km stone dust trail, a wetland boardwalk, a toboggan hill, a garden labyrinth and a memory arboretum. The Alma Optimist Park has a playground and an outdoor rink, and the ball diamonds are on Simpson Street. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church stands in its stone building of 1892, and farm fields open out on every side. Elora and Fergus are a short drive south-east.

Pioneers settled along the Elora Saugeen Road in the 1840s, and Alexander MacCrae built a store here in 1848. The post office opened in 1854 as MacCrae's Corners and was renamed Alma that year, after the Battle of Alma. The Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway came through in 1870, and Alma became a busy service centre with mills, stores and four hotels. The railway closed in 1983.

The 2021 census does not count Alma on its own. It is counted with the rest of Mapleton outside Drayton, which had about 2,830 homes. About nine in ten of those homes are single detached houses. About a third were built in 1960 or earlier and about one in five between 1961 and 1980. More than a quarter were built between 1981 and 2000, and about one in five in 2001 or later.

Wellington Road 17 runs through the village. Fergus is about 14 km away by road, a drive of about 12 minutes, by Wellington Road 17 and Highway 6, and Guelph is about 30 km, about 28 minutes. Drayton is a short drive west.

Wallace Cummings Park at 40 Peel Street East has a playground, a picnic shelter, a beach volleyball court, a 1 km stone dust walking trail, a wetland boardwalk, a toboggan hill, a labyrinth, a memory arboretum and washrooms. The Alma Optimist Park at 14 King Street North has a playground and an outdoor rink, and the Alma ball diamonds are at 4 Simpson Street East, beside the Alma Community Centre. The nearest library branches are in Elora, Fergus and Drayton.

• Alma Public School — JK to Grade 6. The public school for the village, on Simpson Street East.
• Elora Public School — Grades 7 and 8. The middle school for Alma, in Elora.
• James McQueen Public School — JK to Grade 2. The French immersion school for Alma from JK to Grade 2, in Fergus.
• JD Hogarth Public School — Grades 3 to 8. The French immersion school for Alma from Grade 3 to Grade 8, in Fergus.
• Centre Wellington District High School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Alma, in Fergus, with French immersion.
• St. Mary Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary school for Alma, in Elora.
• Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for Alma, in Guelph.