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 [...]
The Metropolis of Southern Alberta – Epilogue
While the ‘30s ushered in a decade of economic depression worldwide, the devastation and economic collapse wrought by drought was well into its second decade in southeastern Alberta. Ceaseless drought combined with infestations of grasshoppers, cutworms. wireworms, weeds, eroding soil and ominous “black blizzards” took their toll on farmers in the area.
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 [...]
For Vauxhall, like Retlaw before, disillusion could lead to dissolution
As some in the town of Vauxhall consider dissolving their municipality, it’s interesting to note that the town’s survival was due in part to the dissolution of the neighbouring village to the west. The former village of Retlaw, now a ghost town located six miles west of Vauxhall, was for a time considered the principle [...]
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 [...]
Exodus
The exodus from the Village was swift and unrelenting. By 1916 only the Bow City Trading Company, Campbell Bros. Hardware, Brewer’s Livery Stable, the post office and seven houses remained in the village. Even the newly–elected secretary-treasurer of the village, former lumber merchant “Colonel Sam” S.E. Armstrong, plied his trade down the trail in Retlaw. [...]
Forgotten Alberta Road trip 2010
After a two year hiatus, our fourth Forgotten Alberta road trip was underway. Following an evening of revelry with hosts Mike & Karin (and cousin Steve), myself and my wheel-man Greg headed out from Brooks on the morning of August 17th to see what we could see. Running from Alderson to Armada in one day, [...]
A city in name only
While the civic fathers remained confident that the village of Bow City would rise like a Phoenix from the scorched prairies, by 1914 most had tired of the empty promises of a railroad and prosperity. With the arrival of the Suffield subdivision branch line to the prairie south and west of the village, new communities [...]
Walter spelled backwards
The C.P.R’s Suffield subdivision – Part Two of Two While rumours continued to surface about possible links to Lethbridge, the final destination of the Suffield subdivision remained a mystery well into 1913. On April 24, any hopes of a link up with Kipp were dashed when the Lethbridge Herald confirmed that the Suffield line would [...]
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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