Pioneers, not Palliser, define southeastern Alberta
Posted on | January 20, 2012 | No Comments
Happy 2012 everyone! For your reading enjoyment (I hope) here is an excerpt from, and a link to, my first Forgotten Alberta column for the Prairie Post:
You’ve probably heard of Captain John Palliser.
He’s the Irish adventurer whose expedition passed through these parts a century-and-a-half ago, and whose name has become synonymous with Alberta’s southeastern corner.
His description of a triangle-shaped region, encompassing modern-day southeastern Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan, as “desert, or semi-desert in character, which can never be expected to become occupied by settlers” has long outlived the intrepid captain, who passed away in 1887.
The Irishman’s observations regarding the “Palliser Triangle” are controversial. Since their initial publication in 1863, his conclusions have consistently been both debunked and vindicated, with opinions on the subject changing as frequently as the southeast’s volatile weather.
Considering the relative prosperity within Palliser’s Triangle today, the ongoing recognition we give the Captain is puzzling.
Click here to read the rest of the column in the Prairie Post
Getting it right – Alberta’s American Fact must not be forgotten
Posted on | December 4, 2011 | 1 Comment
“Settlers and farmers founded this province and their values run deep.
Albertans are proud, resilient, generous and independent-minded. We believe in family and freedom, and are passionately devoted to the land on which we live.”
- Premier Alison Redford, speech to AAMDC Fall Convention, 24 November 2011
I started this blog two years ago to ensure the memories of an exceptional generation of individuals, the first homesteaders of southeastern Alberta, who endured unimaginable hardship to build the region into what is today, were not forgotten.
As most of my learning on this subject took place outside of school (post secondary included), I was keen to learn that the province intended to review the proposed Education Act, Bill 18, and was opening the discussion up to the public.
“Education legislation is not reviewed very often and I am committed to getting it right,” stated Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, in a government media release dated 15 November 2011.
Seeing an opportunity to add some constructive comments to the discussion, I reviewed Alberta’s Social Studies Program of Study to see what our students were learning about their own history.
Tags: American settlers > Education > Politics
Who are the forgotten dead of Vulcan County?
Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 1 Comment
Whose remains are buried here?
Update: No leads yet, but thanks to Michele Jarvie at the Calgary Herald for running an ever-so-slightly modified version of this article here.
During the decade after 1916, settlers fled the drought-ridden plains of southeastern Alberta en masse. As David C. Jones outlines in his book, We’ll all be buried down here- The Prairie Drybelt Disaster of 1917-1926, homesteaders often alighted with few possessions, many carrying only “the shirts on their backs”.
In some instances settlers were forced to part with something more dear, the remains of loved ones who had passed on, left behind in lonely, sometimes forgotten, prairie graveyards.
“We’ll all be buried down here in this dry belt, if we wait for the government to get us out,” Jones quotes one settler, who expressed his desire to “Quit the Dry Belt” in no uncertain terms:. “And parts of it are desperately desolate places to be buried in.”
One such desperately desolate place was Taylor Cemetery, located in Vulcan County:
Along an unremarkable stretch of road, about 17 miles northeast of the village of Lomond, Alta., lie the forgotten dead of Vulcan County.
Atop a wind-whipped knoll along the north side of Secondary Highway 539, a lonely pioneer graveyard has endured for the better part of a century.
Passing motorists would never know a cemetery exists here. There are no headstones or signs to mark the graves. Only a few sunken indentations amidst the crested wheat grass and clover remain.
No seems to know for certain who or how many were buried here. Burial records haven’t been located or do not exist. The next-of-kin are long gone, having joined the exodus from the drought-stricken Kinnondale district west of the Bow River after the First World War.
Tags: Alberta Genealogical Society > Amethyst > Bow City > geneaology > graveyard > Kinnondale > Lomond > Taylor
Coming soon to the Prairie Post – Forgotten Alberta
Posted on | November 18, 2011 | No Comments
I am happy to report that starting in January 2012, select articles from the Forgotten Alberta website will begin appearing in print, on the pages of the Prairie Post newspaper. My column, to be called “Forgotten Alberta – Stories of the Southeast”, will run the third week of every month for readers in SW Saskatchewan and SE Alberta.
Many thanks to Rose Sanchez at the Post for this exciting opportunity! Now I just have to think of something to write about.
In the meantime, you can read a little bit about me here in the November 18th edition, and see my ridiculous mug shot.
Wedderburn’s War – The great rabbit drives of 1924-26
Posted on | November 6, 2011 | No Comments
Rabbit Drive, Lomond, 1925 (Lomond and District History)
The people of Canmore are facing a “hare-raising” dilemma. Much has been written about the divergence of opinion arising from the decision of town council to cull the approximately 2000 feral rabbits currently hopping free in the mountain community.
In all seriousness, the prospect of exterminating a few thousand rabbits is an unpleasant one to be certain. It is by no means, however, an unfamiliar scenario in the annals of Alberta history.
Almost 90 years ago, an explosion in the southeastern Alberta rabbit population proved to be more than merely an inconvenience. Starting around 1924, multiplying rabbit populations began wreaking havoc all across the drought-ravaged southern dry belt. With crops, green feed and gardens under siege, the provincial government and farmers declared war on the rabbit, hoping to stop the insurgency, dead in its tracks.
Tags: Bow City > Brooks > Carolside > Coyotes > Ghost town > Hand Hills > Kinnondale > Lomond > Manyberries > Pakowki > Politics > Purple Springs > Rabbits > Redcliff > Ronalane > Suffield > Tide Lake > U.F.A. > War > Wedderburn
Handy historical and genealogical resources for Albertans
Posted on | September 10, 2011 | 1 Comment
As Albertans we are truly fortunate to have a wealth of free digital resources with which to explore our community or family histories.
A couple of exciting new initiatives have recently debuted which, had they existed in their current form five years ago, would have saved me a few trips up the QEII. Read more
Tags: Alberta Genealogical Society > geneaology > homestead > Peel's Prairie Provinces > Provincial Archives of Alberta > resources > University of Alberta
Sentinel Trees provide a glimpse into the past
Posted on | August 4, 2011 | No Comments
The Sentinel Trees - July 2011
Last summer, while researching the history of the village of Bow City, I came across an article referencing something called the “Sentinel Trees”. In a July 1984 Lethbridge Herald piece entitled “Cottonwoods among most favorite of trees”, the “Sentinel Trees” were described as a group of plains cottonwoods situated in the former Kinnondale district, north of Enchant.
Located on the homestead of American-born bachelor and farmer, Sherman Hewitt, the Sentinels were nominated for inclusion on the Alberta Forestry Association’s 1983 Honour Role of Alberta Trees by Mrs. Guri Opstad of Lethbridge. In the book, Alberta Trees of Renown – An Honour Roll of Alberta Trees, Mrs. Opstad, who passed away in 2009, provides some third-person recollections about the Sentinels, describing them as “a gift from the drylands to a girl of the Alberta Prairies”:
“Well that is that, and God bless them anyway”
Posted on | June 26, 2011 | No Comments
The story of Francis Miller of Medicine Hat has captured the imagination of the many who are anxiously awaiting the upcoming Royal Visit by Prince William and his new bride, Kate.
If you haven’t caught it, Ms. Miller has been afforded the opportunity to meet William and Kate (no word on whether they will henceforth be known as “Wate” or “Killiam”) when they visit Alberta later this summer.
The opportunity arose after the tale of Ms. Miller, and her brush with royalty as a young girl, was adopted by a sympathetic journalist in Medicine Hat and received widespread publicity. Read more
Tags: Alderson > C.P.R. > Ghost town > Medicine Hat > Royal family > Suffield > Walsh
The 2005 Forgotten Alberta Road Trip – Day One
Posted on | April 26, 2011 | No Comments
"To see what we can see."
Two years after our inaugural Forgotten Alberta road trip in August 2003, my wife and I set out again, this time adding one to our party (Greg) and a day to our trip. On day one we set out from Lethbridge, travelling to Medicine Hat via New Dayton, Warner, Foremost, Manyberries, Onefour and many points in-between. Along the way we got a taste of the rapture in Nemiskam, saw the Sweetgrass Hills in a new light, sought out lost rivers and found landscapes that are truly out of this world.
4gotten_Alberta is on Twitter
Posted on | April 16, 2011 | No Comments
Hello everyone and anyone! While posts have been, well, non-existent as of late, I have entered the Twittersphere, and will be making a concerted effort to maintain a presence on the web (albeit a very limited one) until time permits me to post again on a more regular basis. I invite you to follow me on Twitter (@4gotten_alberta) to keep abreast of what is happening on the site, and to garner the occasional tidbit on something that might just be interesting from Alberta’s forgotten corner. In the meantime, new and what I hope are entertaining posts are on the way, so stay tuned!
About
Drawing on over 100 years of family history in the southeast, this is my attempt to shine the spotlight on southeastern Alberta's forgotten history.
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