Tidbits of Alberta

[Red Bullets]

Here is a tiny piece of Edmonton’s past. The Mite Block was once proclaimed by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not to be the smallest two-story building on earth. Real estate agent Arthur Bloomer built this curious little brick building in 1913. the building was approximately 2.7 meters wide. The Mite was located at 9701 Jasper Avenue in Edmonton and housed a jewelry store, a candy store, and the dispatch office of a taxi company until its destruction in the early 1960s.

[Red Bullets]

Back in the first decade of the 1900's at Leduc, Alberta. Wish these were today's prices.

[Red Bullets]

A odd bit of Alberta history.
Justin Trudeau's great great uncle Remus was in Alberta back in the 1880's. He didn't do so well.

[Dewey Cox]

I like the Albertan precedent on how to deal with Trudeaus.

[Red Bullets]

May be of interest to those people who live or enjoy the parklands to the south west of Edmonton. A story of the old old days on the Pigeon Lake Trail.

The Old Pigeon lake trail started at the river crossing on the North Saskatchewan just upstream of the high level bridge in Edmonton. The old road that runs under Saskatchewan Drive and 106 street in today's Edmonton was the trail that was used to come up from the river valley. The Pigeon lake trail went south following Whitemud creek and then followed the high ground south west, passing by the west side of Wizard lake and angling southwest to Pigeon lake at Sundance beach. From there the trail followed the lake shoreline to todays Zeiner's parkand fisher Home and crossed Tide creek west of the lake and continued to Rocky Mountain House. This trail was in place long before the fur trade posts got built.

In the early 1800's,(20's or 30's) an important Hudson's Bay man, Governor George Simpson, traveled the Pigeon Lake trail and camped on a creek along or near the trail. At that time the local Cree people called the creek "Atcheskapesekwa seepee". Translated it meant Smoking Weed River. (I believe the creek was called this because it may have been a place to gather bearberry leaves and red willow bark there, for their tobacco, kinnickinick). The name of the creek was shortened over time to today's Weed creek. Hwy 39 crosses over Weed Creek 27 Kms. west of leduc.

A point of interest is when high ranking George Simpson camped on 'Atcheskapesekwa Seepee' on his journeys past Wizard lake and Pigeon lake to Rocky Mountain House his camping place became known as the Governor's Encampment. The Governor's camping spot was used by those early fur men and explorers who traveled the Pigeon lake Trail 80 or 90 years before the settlers got here. It was an important secure encampment that men felt safe to camp two days journey from Fort Edmonton. The headwater area of Smoking Weed River would have had springs for year round water too.

By the 1850's and 60's the first nations people were restless and uprising so travel on this trail was deemed unsafe. By 1900 the first eastern settlers were breaking ground and much of the trail was lost to the grub axe and plow. Small sections of the Pigeon lake trail still exist today and can even be walked in a few places.

It would be nice to locate the Governor's Encampment and spend a moonlit night. And listen for the old voices on the breeze. This long forgotten camping site that was used around 200 years ago and was important in its day. The stories and things discussed and experiences told around those campfires would have been very colorful.

And...Important camping places became cache sites that not all cache owners were able to return to pick up their caches. Who know's what trinkets or necessaries were cached nearby. Could be an important archeological site even.

I believe this camping site had to be within 3 or 4 miles from Glen Park Hall southwest of Leduc. Near the head water of the Smoking Weed creek.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

A odd bit of Alberta history.
Justin Trudeau's great great uncle Remus was in Alberta back in the 1880's. He didn't do so well.

My oops. Post 573 is inaccurate. There have been many posts with this picture claiming it is several different people. I wouldn't have put it passed someone with that last name. Apologies for this mistake. I try and want to be accurate in what I post.

[Red Bullets]

Speaking in a previous thread about a interesting camping spot of old this article is an interesting tidbit. An 1879 camping spot on the Athabasca river near Whitecourt that is trying to be located. Enjoy the article.

https://albertashistoricplaces.com/2...9rpzQbjGXQBX5s

[EZM]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

A odd bit of Alberta history.
Justin Trudeau's great great uncle Remus was in Alberta back in the 1880's. He didn't do so well.

Criminal thievery runs in the family .......... not surprised are you?

[EZM]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

In 1903 or 1904 the British American Fish Company secured the rights to commercial fish Lesser Slave Lake. A Mr. Butterfield went to the lake and test netted and it was found to be a viable industry. In his nets he had ample whitefish, walleye/pickerel and trout. I cannot confirm what kind of trout. I know there was some kind of s salmon/trout to 35 lbs in the lake at some point back in the day.

The British American Fish Company invested 50K for their operations at Lesser Slave lake. At that time the company expected to take out 50 train car loads of fish per winter sending the fish to Minnesota, Chicago, Toronto and other big cities in the USA and eastern Canada. They had 30 men in employ to complete the task. About a dozen professional net fishermen were brought from the Lake Winnipeg fisheries and the rest locals. The first car load of fish was expected in Edmonton in January 1904.

So an industry was born including making the shipping boxes locally. And supplies needed for the fisheries operations were bought in Edmonton and not shipped in even though the company headquarters were in Selkirk Manitoba. Just the nets were brought in from the east. At this stage I am not sure how long this company operated at Lesser Slave lake.

And then there was the mink farmers that set up at the lake. By the late 1950's there were about a hundred families involved in mink farming around the lake. They needed fish to feed the 50,000 mink they pelted every year.

In 1958 there were 180 commercial fishing licenses issued for the lake, plus 110 fur farm fishing licenses around Lesser Slave Lake too. Millions of pounds of fish were harvested annually. These two industries contributed almost 600K annually to Alberta's economy from Just Lesser Slave lake up to the 1960's.

This history now makes me wonder. Because the commercial fisheries were stopped recently and there are fewer mink farms Lesser Slave lake should maybe once more be teeming with fish. It would be nice if we could introduce some gerrard trout into LS lake too.

Lesser Slave Lake used to have Lake Trout in there. They were there until the 1940's then disappeared.....

http://albertalakes.ualberta.ca/?pag...gion=1&lake=35

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by EZM

Lesser Slave Lake used to have Lake Trout in there. They were there until the 1940's then disappeared.....

http://albertalakes.ualberta.ca/?pag...gion=1&lake=35

Thanks for the link.
At one point back then the Lesser Slave lake level went down and sort of dried up on the west end. So much so that the government built a road across the dry lake bed. Then years later the water came up again and now it is unsure where this road was. That dry up might have affected the trout. Most likely the fur farmers nets too.

Would be nice to re-introduce lake trout to Lesser Slave lake.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

This is a pic of a Lake Minnewanka lake trout. Not sure of the date the pic was taken but it was an early pic.

[IMG][/IMG]

That was 1886 according to a match found in google images on a pintrest post.

That is a cool picture. Minnewanka would have still been a series of lakes and basins, before the first and second dams were built and there were private homes, hotels, restaurants and other things in the town that was there before they dammed it.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Still loving this thread. Red, you are a treasure trove of information!

[Red Bullets]

Thanks Stinky. Just saying that feels like I'm in the gang with Spanky & Buckwheat.

Speaking of stinky buffalo... When you drive west of Edmonton on hwy. 16 you pass by Chip Lake. Before the 1870's it was known as Buffalo Chip lake or Buffalo Dung lake. Would have had a stinky buffalo shoreline. You might have some roots there. An old map from 1875 also called the lake Dirt Lake.

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by EZM

Criminal thievery runs in the family .......... not surprised are you?

https://factcheck.afp.com/trudeau-la...ing-uncle-hoax

[ALBTUFF]

Not going as far back as some of Red Bullets Tidbits but here is a few my grandfather used to tell me about:

Beaverhill lake back in the 1920's used to extend out past Highway 16 to the north and also had some big northern pike in it. One year the the lake winter killed and and the beaches were lined with 20+ pound fish. Also they used to release pheasants in the Beaverhill lake area and my dad and granddad one time got a ring neck, a black one, a white one, and a golden.

Ross creek (can see off of high 16, east of elk Island) used to have so many fish in it that some of the pork farmers used to feed their pigs the fish. I was told you could scoop them out with a pitch fork. This was ended due to pork at market would have a fishy taste.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Speaking of stinky buffalo... When you drive west of Edmonton on hwy. 16 you pass by Chip Lake. Before the 1870's it was known as Buffalo Chip lake or Buffalo Dung lake. Would have had a stinky buffalo shoreline. You might have some roots there. An old map from 1875 also called the lake Dirt Lake.

Well, that would explain a lot!

[bobtodrick]

My youngest son (17) have spent the weekends this summer (of Covid) taking day trips photographing the ghost towns of Alberta https://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/alberta.html
In 1950 Alberta's rural population accounted for nearly 50% of the people...as of 2016 it is 16%.
I find it fascinating and sad that these little towns are disappearing.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by bobtodrick

My youngest son (17) have spent the weekends this summer (of Covid) taking day trips photographing the ghost towns of Alberta https://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/alberta.html
In 1950 Alberta's rural population accounted for nearly 50% of the people...as of 2016 it is 16%.
I find it fascinating and sad that these little towns are disappearing.

I like your son's choice of subject for photography. I'm sure he would enjoy this website too. It may give him ideas to do a then and now kind of album. You should buy him a good metal detector for his birthday too.
http://prairie-towns.com/index.html

~~~
What I find sad is that most younger people don't have a clue when they drive down country side roads in areas of the central Alberta parklands that 50 to 100 years ago there were bustling farmyards every 1/2 mile or so. The small mixed farmers had livestock, poultry, swine, produce, pasture and crop land. Most farmers had several kids too. Most of the old two story farmhouses, windmills, big gable end barns and farmyards have disappeared.

The small towns near the railways were the hub of the farming communities. Every one of those railway towns had big grain elevators and all the supplies a farmer could use. The town schools were filed with farm kids on school buses. The oil boom in the late 40's and 50's lured many farm kids off the farms for jobs in the cities which started the decline of rural populations.

Then more small mixed farmers were phased out for the most part by corporate farmers. Less farmers equals less services needed in towns. With more paved roads, thanks to the oilfields, and less reliance on the railway, people could drive to the next town or city in mere minutes instead of hours. Towns needed the farmers.

80 years ago a trip that took at least 2 hours go to the city on dirt roads can now be done in 25 minutes. Funny how people can go that fast to save time and yet they have no time to spare.

[bobtodrick]

Thanks for the link Red Bullets, we’ll definitely check it out.
In the late 80’s a photo project of mine was photographing Alberta water towers.
I had dozens of them and donated a set of the prints to Alberta Archives.
In my childhood (60’s) every town had one....sadly most of those I photographed are gone now.

[MountainTi]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

~~~
What I find sad is that most younger people don't have a clue when they drive down country side roads in areas of the central Alberta parklands that 50 to 100 years ago there were bustling farmyards every 1/2 mile or so. The small mixed farmers had livestock, poultry, swine, produce, pasture and crop land. Most farmers had several kids too. Most of the old two story farmhouses, windmills, big gable end barns and farmyards have disappeared.

The small towns near the railways were the hub of the farming communities. Every one of those railway towns had big grain elevators and all the supplies a farmer could use. The town schools were filed with farm kids on school buses. The oil boom in the late 40's and 50's lured many farm kids off the farms for jobs in the cities which started the decline of rural populations.

Then more small mixed farmers were phased out for the most part by corporate farmers. Less farmers equals less services needed in towns. With more paved roads, thanks to the oilfields, and less reliance on the railway, people could drive to the next town or city in mere minutes instead of hours. Towns needed the farmers.

80 years ago a trip that took at least 2 hours go to the city on dirt roads can now be done in 25 minutes. Funny how people can go that fast to save time and yet they have no time to spare.

Hutterittes have played a HUGE role in the decline of rural populations/farm sizes as well as the decline of the small farm town. Probably more so than any other factor
When I was a kid 1200 acres was a large farm. Now that's hardly a hobby farm.

[MountainTi]

Originally Posted by bobtodrick

My youngest son (17) have spent the weekends this summer (of Covid) taking day trips photographing the ghost towns of Alberta https://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/alberta.html
In 1950 Alberta's rural population accounted for nearly 50% of the people...as of 2016 it is 16%.
I find it fascinating and sad that these little towns are disappearing.

It shows

[Talking moose]

Bittern lake just west of camrose. Some years has water some years not.... next time it doesn’t, go look for exposed buffalo skulls. A friend lives out there and finds them.

[Moosetalker]

Awesome thread so much history. Thanks a bunch Red.

So many places you mention I have seen in the past old portable sawmill sites on the big Berland. A friend lives on the Grand Prairie trail. Many years ago we camped at Kinky lake took a day to explore up around Brule lake Found the old Brule Train station almost buried in the sand drifting thru now. Spent many an hour talking to a pair of old {late 70s} bachelor brothers still living on the land that there parents homesteaded on the Pembina River west of Flatbush. Elder brother has loads of stories about the early years and threshing crews he worked along side. I have visited the Campsite used by the Thompson expedition just after the archeological dig/survey was completed up that way.

[EZM]

When I was about 20, we went exploring in an area adjacent to our property not far from Water Valley and deep in the woods, as we followed the creek exploring we found a cabin, deep in the bush - must have been 100+ years old ........ always wondered what the story was there.

Had a old little cast iron wood stove and a few old tools and implements. Glass only on one window and it looked almost as if was melted (was wavy) - later found out glass used to be like that in the old days.

Really cool.

Unfortunately this was in the days before cell phones and cell phone cameras.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

Hutterittes have played a HUGE role in the decline of rural populations/farm sizes as well as the decline of the small farm town. Probably more so than any other factor
When I was a kid 1200 acres was a large farm. Now that's hardly a hobby farm.

I remember it taking a couple days just to go around a 80 acre field with 14 to 16 foot wide implements. Now a farmer can do the same field in a few hours.

In our area even 640 acres was a big farm in the 50's and 60's.

[Red Bullets]

When today's trucker's talk about the rough weather and scary drive up north remind them about the cat train runs without a cab. In the north tractor or cat trains were used extensively from the late 30's up until the early 1960s.

In the last year of the 1930's the first cat-train arrived in Yellowknife. It was four caterpillar tractors that pulled sixteen sleds with 80 tons of freight almost a thousand kilometers.

The cat train had left Grimshaw, Alberta in the first week of March and would take five and a half weeks to travel to Yellowknife. Today a person can drive the distance in 11 hours. The cat trail From Grimshaw to Yellowknife followed much of the same route of the Mackenzie Highway today.


Picture is from prairietowns.com. The pic is not the first Yellowknife cat train but is a great picture of a cat train in Grimshaw. I'm sure some northern guys heard stories from their dads or grandpas.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by EZM

When I was about 20, we went exploring in an area adjacent to our property not far from Water Valley and deep in the woods, as we followed the creek exploring we found a cabin, deep in the bush - must have been 100+ years old ........ always wondered what the story was there.

Had a old little cast iron wood stove and a few old tools and implements. Glass only on one window and it looked almost as if was melted (was wavy) - later found out glass used to be like that in the old days.

Really cool.

Unfortunately this was in the days before cell phones and cell phone cameras.

Who knows. You have to find the land location, do a homestead search, then read the Water Valley history book. Then you would know a bit about the place.

There were so many places now long gone. I remember there used to be a huge log castle by Wizard lake that was built by 2 bachelors about 1919. totally gone now.

I know of a dug cellar in the now bush that could be from the latter half of the 1800's, long before settlement.

Reminds me of something I recently learned that most people wouldn't realize.

Today you go to Battle lake, near Pigeon lake, and it seems relatively untouched. In 1845, fifty years before settlers were even encouraged to come to central Alberta territory early missionary Robert Rundle was traveling from Rocky mountain House to Fort Edmonton and he decided he wanted to see Battle lake for the first time and consider it for a mission site. The Hudson's Bay men that were traveling with him were reluctant to build a mission there because there was a small settlement of metis already living there. About 6 families lived on north side of the lake. One of the Metis living there was brother to the famous scout Gabriel Dumont.

[sjemac]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

A odd bit of Alberta history.
Justin Trudeau's great great uncle Remus was in Alberta back in the 1880's. He didn't do so well.

Last time I saw that photo it was attributed to Stephen Harper’s family. Complete and utter horse****. Please stop doing this guys. It hurts credibility.

[bobtodrick]

Originally Posted by sjemac

Last time I saw that photo it was attributed to Stephen Harper’s family. Complete and utter horse****. Please stop doing this guys. It hurts credibility.

As if that’s the only thing that hurts credibility on this section of the forum 🤣

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by sjemac

Last time I saw that photo it was attributed to Stephen Harper’s family. Complete and utter horse****. Please stop doing this guys. It hurts credibility.

I have already posted that this was a mistake and apologized.