The town was originally called Pretty Hill. The name was changed to Dinant on May 1, 1913, when the post office opened. Dinant became locally prominent primarily due to coal mining. Operations like the local Bush Mine (frequently documented in early provincial archives) drew workers and families to the area, giving the hamlet a brief period of industrial vitality alongside its farming roots.

Much like many small-scale coal communities of the era, Dinant's fortunes plummeted when its local mines exhausted their viability or closed down. Without the industrial anchor, residents moved away, and the hamlet steadily depopulated. The last physical vestige of commercial life—an Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator—was moved away around 1965.