A bit of Norway on the prairie
A century ago, several thousand settlers of Norwegian extraction set out from their homesteads in the American Midwest, in search of a “second chance” in Alberta. According to historian, Gulbrand Loken, the exodus of Norwegians between 1900 and 1920 was prompted by “rural depression, agricultural crises, mountain debts, few new economic opportunities for expansion and [...]
American settlers are part of our story
Is it my third column already? This month’s offering for the Prairie Post is about the most influential group to set down roots in Alberta’s southeast during the first two decades of the 20th century: Americans. This is a controversial notion for some, I will refrain from speculating why, but one that I believe is [...]
Bow City – The village born unlucky
Many thanks to the Historical Society of Alberta, and the legendary Mr. Hugh Dempsey, CM, for the opportunity to share a decade’s worth of research on the former village of Bow City. Below is a brief excerpt from my article, followed by the piece in its entirety, which appears in the Winter 2012 edition of Alberta [...]
Getting it right – Alberta’s American Fact must not be forgotten
“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 [...]
Who are the forgotten dead of Vulcan County?
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 [...]
Boosterism and Bow City
A key component in the growth of Western Canadian urban centres during the late 19th – early 20th centuries was the phenomenon known as “boosterism”. The boosting engaged in by promoters and communities during the two decades preceding the First World War has been well chronicled by Western Canadian historians, including Artibise (1981), Jones (1987), [...]
An artist’s mis-conception of Bow City, c. 1910
From the University of Oregon Digital Collections comes an artist’s, shall we say mis-conception of the townsite at Bow City, prepared by architects Edouard Frere Champney (architect, 1874-1929) and Augustus Warren Gould (architect, 1872-1922) in about 1910.
The desperate ‘20s
The decade of the ‘20s was time of desolation and desperation for many residents of southern Alberta. For the settlers along the Bow, a half-decade of drought, windstorms, insects and weeds, crop failure had precipitated an economic and social catastrophe crisis in the region. In some areas up to three-in four-residents were receiving relief for [...]
The Westgates of Bow City
While speculators and investors receive the credit for creating “Bow City”, very few of the original boosters could actually be bothered to make anything more than a cash investment in the community. There are numerous stories of settlers who stuck it out, and gave what they could out of concern for the social, spiritual and [...]
Ranching along the “Big Bow”
Although the first explorers of the Bow Valley southeast of Calgary questioned the suitability of the land for agriculture, the vacant mixed grass prairie did prove ideal for one thing: grazing cattle. Following the demise of the buffalo and the confinement of the Indians on reservations, cattlemen big and small moved their herds onto the [...]
keep looking »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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