There's a place at Pigeon lake that no matter when I have gone there there is always a calm peaceful feeling there no matter what the weather. It wasn't always so...
In the 1842 Pigeon Lake's Rundle's Mission on the north shore was an important place for christianity coming into the west. Many the important missionaires in the early history of the area spent time at Rundle's mission. Rundle, Sinclair, Woolsey, McDougall and Steinhauer.
At one stage in the 1840's a group with Sinclair were massacred at nearby Battle lake by blackfoot FN. By 1845 the mission was abandoned and burned down. It wasn't until 1869 that Rev. MacDougall rebuilt and started up the mission again, with his new bride to keep him company 50 miles away from Fort Edmonton.
A year later....
*Rev. Peter Campbell. Pigeon Lake
April 13, 1870
"Now there is no safety for the traveler, and he who journeys alone runs great risk of losing their scalp. Of late we have become painfully familiar with deeds of cold-blooded butchery and unpitying revenge."
Presently the mission site is an interesting place in that you can walk the grounds and see the 'cellar' depressions of buildings past and there are graves in the area. I believe the log mission house still has church services too. Just to the east of the mission there is a year round spring that I'm sure is what attracted the missionaries to build in the area. Many locals over 170 years got water from that spring including myself. Only a few years ago was it deemed possibly unsafe.
A nice place for an Alberta break.
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This country was started by voyagers whose young lives were swept away by the currents of the rivers for ten cents a day... just for the vanity of the European's beaver hats. ~ Red Bullets
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It is when you walk alone in nature that you discover your strengths and weaknesses. ~ Red Bullets
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