Alberta north

8 Pages·1991·3.4 MB·English

by  Northern Alberta Development Council

■ Two Adventurers
■ The Famous Athabasca Trail
■ People of the North
■ Collecting Memories
Vol. 4, No. 1 Winter, 1991
Contents
Dear Readers:
The Man Who Did Things First:
Peter Pond
As I have mentioned in the past, 3
Alberta North appreciates hearing
from readers. But one thing amazes
us. Although this mini-magazine is Everybody's Friend:
distributed to schools, it apparently finds its way into histori- 3 Twelve-Foot Davis
cal societies' hands as well. And that's all for the best. Some
of our best story ideas have come from members of historical The Famous Athabasca
societies.
4 Landing Trail
Olive Stickney's name was sent to us by a resident of that
community who wants to see the village's heritage preserved.
In a future issue we expect to do a more detailed story about
Olive. What the Trail Was Like
If you have any story ideas, please share them with us. 4
We want to know about the interesting people of northern
Alberta.
Where Was This Trail?
5
Bob Elliot, chairman
Northern Alberta Development Council What Happened to the
5 Athabasca Landing Trail?
Who Travelled the
5 Athabasca Trail?
Arabs in the North
6
The Chipewyan People
6
Campers on the Athabasca Trail
When Willie Walked North
ALBERTA NORTH is published by the Northern Alberta 7
Development Council and is distributed free for the use
of junior high schools and the general public in Alberta.
The Athabasca Trail -
Editor: Kathy Teillet
7 a poem by a famous author
Research Advisers this issue: Joy
Juneau, Albert Moghrobi, Chris
Interesting Things About
Robinson, John Shannon, Bob
Interesting Things
Tannas, Arthur Thomson, Susan 7
Weston, McLelland & Stewart
Publishers, The National Library
Folklore is Everywhere
of Canada.
8 You Look
Address inquiries to:
The Northern Alberta Develop-
ment Council Storytelling in the
701 Princeton Place
8 Village of Hythe
10339 124 Street
ydiberra
Edmonton, Alberta T5N 3W1
ISSN 0835-7404 Who First Collected Lore?
8
2
v/Vl'iVL/LrViii »
MAR 3 1 1992
The Man Who Did Things First: Peter Pond
Peter Pond was 67 when he died in You are probably wondering where
Connecticut, U.S.A., where he had he built that house and fort. Historians
been born. It is surprising that he
don't know, but they believe it likely
reached that age, because most was at Embarras Portage.
voyageurs died young. Besides, he had You can find Embarras Portage on
a quarrelsome, risk-taking nature. the map. Look a little bit south and
He was a founding partner of the west of Fort Chipewyan.
North-West Company and, almost sin- Something else to look for is Peter
Pond Lake. This lake, while not in
gle-handedly, was responsible for
establishing the fur trade in the Lake Alberta, is located on the route he took
Athabasca-Fort Chipewyan region. through Saskatchewan to reach Alberta.
He would have had no trouble mak-
Peter Pond's great dream was to find
ing it i nto the Guinness Book of World the overland route to the Pacific Ocean,
Records if there had been such a book
but he was a violent man who got him-
at that time. He was the first white man self mixed up in two murders, and the
to come to what is now Alberta: the Company sent Alexander Mackenzie
first to see the oil sands; to cross the into the Athabasca Delta to oversee
things.
difficult Methy Portage; to grow a veg- Modern Fort Chipewyan where the hind is Still
etable garden; and to build a white Peter Pond left the following spring
the same as it w as in Peter Pond's daw
man's house here. (1788), eventually returning to Con-
In fact, he built the first fort in all necticut where he died a poor man even
the Mackenzie watershed. though he had been largely responsible vision, w as the explorer who first trav -
He was also the one who realized for bringing extraordinary riches out of elled overland to the Western Sea.
that pemmican was the ideal food for the north and into the hands of the You would think everybody would
voyageurs to carry on their long canoe North-West Company. know about Peter Pond, but children in
trips, and he drew the first maps (not Sadly, he never realized his dream other provinces have never heard of
very accurate ones) of northern Alber- either. Alexander Mackenzie, using him. and many Albertans have no idea
ta. who he was or what he did.
Pond's maps, and building on Pond's
Every Man's Friend: Twelve-Foot Davis
Twelve-Foot Davis was not 12 feet tall. In his own words: "I never killed He was every man \ f r iend
In fact, he was quite a short man. He nobody; never stole from nobody; I And Never l.oeked His Cabin Door.
got his nickname because he staked a never hurt nobody intentional; and I
What a tribute! And what a wonder-
claim for a gold mine in a tiny 12-foot always kept my shacks open for tired
ful friend and neighbor Twelve-Foot
space between two other major claims. Davis must have been.
He made a fortune on the gold he found and H eh un hgardy pneootp l bee.e" n born in Canada.
there. This all happened during the Like Peter Pond, he came to northern
Cariboo Gold Rush in B.C. Alberta from the U.S.A.
Because he was the kind of man He died in Grouard on Lesser Slave
who shared whatever he had with
Lake in 1893, according to his grave-
needy people, he soon gave away most stone. Historians think that date is
of the $20,000 his mine earned for probably wrong. He most likely did not
him — a fortune in the 1850s. die until 1900 or 1901.
So Twelve-Foot, whose real name After he had been dead some 12
was Henry Fuller Davis, went back to years, a friend moved his body from
his first work, trading. He became a Grouard to Peace River because he had
well-known character in the Peace said he wanted to be buried there. He
River Country. He traded goods lies at the top of a hill overlooking the
upstream on the Fraser River, over the beautiful Peace River Valley.
height of land, to the Parsnip River, This is what is written on his grave-
then down the Peace to Dunvegan. stone:
H.F. Davis
A popular man, he couldn't read or
write. Nevertheless, he kept accurate Born in Vermont, 1820
records in his mind and treated every- Died at Slave Lake, 1893 The grave of Twelve-Foot Davis overlooks the
one fairly. Pathfinder, Pioneer, Miner and Trader beautiful Peaee River Valley.
3
The Famous
Athabasca
Landing Trail
the ays before the white man
I d ians had a route that led
North Saskatchewan River,
through the site of today's town of
Athabasca, to the Arctic Ocean.
They used this trail for centuries.
Fur traders, when they came, fol-
lowed the same path in the early
1800s. Then, in 1875, the Hudson's
Bay Company chopped out a cart
road from Fort Edmonton (just
below the site of the Legislative
Building in Edmonton) to Atha-
basca Landing.
This was Alberta's very first
highway and it was pretty much the
same route as the old Indian trail. It
opened the way to the rivers that
reached the western Arctic regions.
The Bay called its road, The
Athabasca Landing Trail and had it A wagon gets bogged down on the Athabasca Trail.
surveyed in 1879.
Although The Bay expected to
be the only ones to use the trail, this
was not to be. The first settler came What the Trail was Like
along it before it w as even surveyed
and this was only the beginning. You and I cannot imagine what The Corduroying was supposed to pre-
Soon, explorers, other settlers, mis- Athabasca Trail was like. We are used vent animals and wagons from sinking
sionaries, adventurers and indepen- to wide paved or graded roads and into mud or falling into holes. But
dent traders also began to use it. comfortable vehicles. sometimes, oxen or horses got their feet
But The Athabasca Landing The Athabasca Trail was not wide,
trapped between the poles. And some-
Trail really came into its own when and it was certainly not straight. It times the c orduroy gave way.
the Klondike Gold Rush brought wound through trees and up and down All along The Athabasca Trail you
885 prospectors over it on their way hills, straight into swamps and muskeg, could have found abandoned wagons and
to make fortunes in the Yukon.
and sometimes right through rivers and goods, and dead horses. The horses died
It continued to see heavy use streams. from exhaustion or injury, and then the
when the gold rush ended because travellers could not move their wagons.
After the Hudson's Bay Company
in the early years of this century,
defined this trail and chopped it into a As for the settlers, they found the
settlers heading into the Peace road of sorts, they also erected some trail so difficult for their animals that
River Country came by way of The
Athabasca Trail. bridges and maintained boats and fer- most people ended up walking. Even
ries. But, even so, this was no city small children, pregnant women, and
It was not easy for them, for the street.
old people walked that trail.
journey from Edmonton to Atha- Many trees had been felled to They said they were nearly driven
basca Landing took from five to
improve the trail, but their stumps still out of their minds by mosquitoes and
eight days with loaded wagons.
lay in the path. If and when the road biting flies. They had to coat all
Sometimes, if there had been a lot of
ever dried out, there were mud holes exposed flesh with mud as a protection
recent rain, it c ould take even longer.
where wagons and animals got mired against the insects. They did the same
This was a distance of only 154.5 down, and these became ruts capable of for their animals.
kilometres (96 miles). We could do it
today in a couple of hours. tipping a wagon over. How much they must have wanted
Travellers also encountered deep to settle in our beautiful north to have
The historic Athabasca Landing
Trail was used for more than 35 sand traps. Some people said they trav- endured the hardships of the trail; how
elled with one set of wheels in a rut and often they must have been frightened
years. the other set out of it, i n order to move and discouraged; and what stories they
In future issues of Alberta North,
at all. must later have told their children and
we will tell you about other trails
Parts of the trail were corduroyed.
that the early settlers and explorers This was a way of laying poles across granTdhceh i lAdtrheanb.a sca Trail was used until
travelled to reach our then-distant
north. the road and then caulking between 1912 when the railway finally reached
them with clay, or mud, or sand. Athabasca Landing.
4
What Happened to The
Athabasca Landing Trail?
What happens to a
trail when nobod)
needs it a nymore?
In the case of The
Athabasca Trail,
those parts in and
near Edmonton got
paved over. In other
places, weeds and
brush grew back and
covered it. Some of
the trail became
Where Was farmers" fields and
crops grew across it.
Most people for-
This Trail?
got it h ad ever exist-
ed although some
Although many traces of the trail have stretches were very
vanished with time, some can still be easy to spot.
found. It seems as if The Athabasca Trail In 1976, a group
took the following route: dedicated to seeing it
From Edmonton northeast to the Stur- was not lost forever,
geon River, then along the river for some took a trail ride over
six miles to just northeast of Gibbons. It the old road. This
went around Lily Lake next, then along a was so successful
creek past where Waugh is today till it that they decided to
crossed the Redwater River. It then ran a preserve the trail and
little east of present-day Clyde, up try to take annual Building boats for the Gold Rush at Athabasca Landing in IS9S.
trail rides.
through Tawatinaw, Rochester, Perry-
vale, Meanook and Colinton. It ended at The Athabasca Landing Trail was church and an official sign just north of
the town of Athabasca, called Athabasca cleared of rubbish and overgrowth and Gibbons.
Landing in those days. the Trail North Foundation now tried to Although you cannot take a guided
The railway took a more direct route, have the entire trail named a provincial tour or ride over the trail, it is possible
but from about Tawatinaw on, the train historic resource. for adventurous people to follow it.
tracks run alongside the historic old This was not possible and the group
Athabasca Trail. settled for the restoration of an old ChuYrcohu acta nW a uaglsho, vnisoiwt Oa l mdu s Setu.m .M ar) 's
Who Travelled the Athabasca Trail?
We have a great deal of information wagon as far as Athabasca Landing of a woman who walked the trail with
about the people who travelled The on a holiday of sorts. Imagine! Her her missionary family when she was
Athabasca Landing Trail, for many of story was printed in the Alberta His- just a little girl in 1886.
them kept journals which historians torical Review in 1971. Certainly, we must not forget the
have studied; and some even wrote
We also know that Hudson's Bay Klondikers. Called 'Stampeders,' they
books and poems. traders, natives, and horsemen deliv- trekked into the north in droves — on
One interesting book is called, Our ering the mail, used the trail. So did foot, on horseback, in carts and wag-
Trail North, by E. Van Kleek. This freight wagons loaded with goods for ons in 1 897 and 1898.
story is about homesteaders journey- the settlers already at Athabasca In his book, Klondike, Pierre
ing over The Athabasca Trail, then Landing and with parts and equip- Berton points out that not everyone
along the north side of Lesser Slave ment for the boatmen who plied the on the Athabasca was a nice person.
Lake, and finally south from Grouard river. He tells of embezzlers, thieves, and
to the High Prairie area. They did this Missionaries were another group opportunists of every kind.
in 1912, just before the arrival of the you could find on The Athabasca Yes. People from all walks of life
railway. Trail. You might want to read, The and of all shades of honesty, travelled
In 1910, a young woman named Emperor of Peace River, written by The Athabasca Landing Trail.
Edna Shore, travelled by horse and Eugenie Louise Myles, the daughter
5
Arabs
The North
Northern Alberta may seem to be an
unlikely place to find settlers of Ara-
bic origin. It is, after all, a long way
from the Mediterranean Ocean and
the Middle East. But there was a Syr-
ian fur-buyer in the Lac La Biche
area as long ago as 1896.
This man was Sine (Ali) Abou-
goush — sometimes called Hajar. He
bought furs in the vicinity of Fort
Chipewyan, then brought them down-
river to s ell in Lac La Biche.
Not long after, in 1908, a
Lebanese name Abou Shaedi (Alec
Hamilton) owned a trading post in
The Chipewyan People
Lac La Biche. The next Lebanese set-
tlers came six years later — one to be natio(nTsh.e) story of one of the northern Alberta The Chipewyans did not live in
a mink farmer, the other to home-
large tribes. Rather, they travelled in
stead the land.
No history book can tell us when the families, except when they were fight-
More and more Arabic people
first Chipewyan people came to north- ing. This family system was more effi-
came to the area until Lac La Biche ern Alberta, but white men first cient for feeding themselves than large
had, and still has, the largest popula- encountered them in 1689. groups would have been.
tion of Arabs per capita in all of At that time, they lived and hunted They dressed in caribou skins, leav-
Canada. What do such people do in the land between Great Slave Lake and ing the animal hair on the hides for
Canada? They do everything. The Hudson Bay. Soon after, they began to winter wear. They wore belts, mittens
first ones became farmers and busi- go to Fort Churchill to trade. Then, and caps too, and these were made
nessmen or w ent into the construction from deer heads. Over all this clothing,
they acquired guns which allowed them
trades, but today, you will find many to extend their territory farther north by they wore robes fashioned from caribou
in the professions as well. forcing the Inuit to move. skins sewed together.
In Alberta today, you can find They had pointed ends hanging from
In fact, these fine people have set-
Chipewyans living in the Cold Lake their tunics (or shirts). These were
tled very comfortably into our cold
and Janvier areas as well as at Fort pieces of animal skin and this fashion
northern clime and have gone on to
contribute to northern Alberta in McKay and Fort Chipewyan. was unique to the Chipewyans. In fact,
many ways. The rio rs.C It wh aisp e wnyota n usn t iwl e rteh e f 1ie7r6c0es w tahra-t it is how they got their name. The word
'Chipewyan' comes from the Cree
By 1970, there were enough peo- they began to live peacefully with the
ple of the Moslem faith to support a Cree, and it was even later (well into wordT h efroer 'aproei n taebdo u ts ki 2ns,.5'0 0 Chipewyans
mosque (a Moslem house of wor- the 1800s) that they finally stopped in northern Alberta.
ship). When it was built, it was only their wars with the Inuit.
the second mosque in all of Alberta After they came to terms with the
and, for many years, had the distinc- Cree, they still controlled the lower
tion of b eing the most northerly one Peace and Athabasca Rivers, Lake
in the world. Today, there is also a Athabasca and lands that extended east-
mosque in Fort McMurray. ward as f ar as Hudson Bay.
They were known as great hunters.
The Arabic language is taught in
Because caribou was their main food,
Lac La Biche public schools as part
they usually followed the caribou
of the general curriculum. As well,
migrations. It is said they used to spear
the town has a very active Canadian
these animals from their canoes as the
Moslem Association and Arabic
herds swam across the lakes and rivers.
lessons may be taken there.
What a sight that would have been!
At this time, there are between 300 They also hunted moose, muskox,
and 350 Arab-Canadians in the Lac buffalo, deer, and water birds of all
La Biche area. kinds. Of course they fished. A Chipewyan camp in 1885.
6
When Willie Walked North The Athabasca Trail
Willie was so excited, he could hardly stand it. Only one more / h ave seen the gorge of Erie where the roaring waters run,
day until he and his mother and father would start on their
I h ave erossed the inland ocean, lying golden in the sun.
journey to Athabasca Landing.
But the last and best and sweetest is the ride by hill and
steWaimlbloiaet',s faantdh er t hhea d w hboeleen pfraommiilsye d w a sa g ogoodi n gj o bt o w omrokvien g a owna y a dskayl,e
from Edmonton and set up a new home in a new place. They
With the packer and the pack horse on the Athabasca I r ail!
had spent days loading their wagon and preparing themselves
for the trip. I'll dream again of f ields of g rain that stretch from sky to
"We're going to sleep in a tent and cook our meals over a
fire," he boasted to his friend Robert. And the little prairie hamlets where the cars go rolling by,
"You'll probably get lost," Robert said. Wooden hamlets as I s aw them — noble cities still to be.
"My father knows the way," Willie said proudly.
It rained and rained and rained when Willie and his family To girdle stately Canada with gems from sea to sea.
walked The Athabasca Trail. The oxen could hardly budge the Mother of mighty manhood, land of g lamour and of hope,
wagon because of the deep mud, so sometimes everybody had
From sl otphee. eastward seaswept islands to the sunny western
to help the animals, by pushing the wagon and pulling on the
beasts' yokes.
The nights were the worst. Willie heard the wolves howling Ever more my heart is with you, ever more till life shall fail
in the woods and he shivered in his bedroll. Other unknown
animals crept as near the camp as they dared, and he saw their I'll be out with pack and packer on the Athabasca trail.
eyes gleaming red in the darkness. Crawling and flying things — by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
got up his sleeves and down his neck, and these insects bit. (Note: This poem is not about the Athabasca Landing Trail but could have
The bedding was always cold and damp. been, it i s so suitable.)
Sometimes Willie wished they had stayed in Edmonton in
their warm cozy house.
Other times, he didn't miss his old home because they had
good times too. Another family travelling the trail had a boy
his age, and the boy's father played the fiddle.
They used to sit around the fire after supper chores were
done and sing till bedtime. They were always happy when
Willie's family joined them.
Although the animals made Willie nervous at night, it was
exciting for him in the daytime whenever he saw a deer or
moose or bear. There were hundreds of colorful birds too, and
wildflowers and butterflies.
Sometimes, when he looked up at the lacy canopy of trees
above his head, and smelled the sweet clean air, and imagined
the new life ahead of him, Willie was glad they had decided to
travel The Athabasca Trail to a new and exciting life.
This photo, taken in 1909. shows an overturned wagon on the Athabasca
Landing Trail
Interesting Things About Int<
iting Things — A Trivia Quiz
1. How long was The Athabasca Landing Trail? 13. Into what body of water does the Peace River empty?
2. WOihlo S awnadss ? the first non-native person to see the Athabasca 14. cWehnattr e ?n orthern community is Alberta's geographical
3. What was the settlement that is now called Slave Lake
15. Was Twelve-Foot Davis really 12 feet tall?
originally named?
4. What are the names of the rivers at Fort McMurray?
5. Why was northern Alberta settled before southern About This Page
Alberta?
6. What highway takes you to the Northwest Territories?
7. Where in northern Alberta does it start? This page — the inside back cover — of Alberta North is the readers'
8. What endangered bird nests in Wood Buffalo National We will be happy to print stories, poems, drawings, puzzles, photogra-
Park?
phy, and so on, submitted by our readers. Just remember that what you sub-
9. Where is Wood Buffalo National Park? page.m it must be original since there are laws that protect other people's work.
Submit your work along with your name, address, grade and school to:
10. How do you get there? The Editor, Alberta North. The Northern Development Branch, 2nd Floor,
11. What fur trading company did Peter Pond work with? Provincial Building, 9621 - 9 6 Avenue, Peace River, Alberta T8S 1T4.
12. Was Peter Pond a Canadian? The best submissions will be published and all others will be returned.
7
)Iklore is Everywhere You Look
True folklore is something passed on Some folklorists also compare the dles and jokes.
by word-of-mouth from one generation stories they collect with those found by Collecting folklore is something you
others in different countries. Would
to the next. It is the story your grand-
can do very cheaply. If you don't have
mother told your mother. a tape recorder, write things down in a
you believe that some version of "Jack
Such stories are not usually found in and the Beanstalk" has been found in special notebook.
books. However, in recent years, they every country studied? Start with your mother and father.
are being collected and published so Also, folklorists do not view stories Interview them and ask about family
they can be saved. as the only lore of the people. They col- stories. Find out what rhymes they
Here is how folklorists collect the recited when they were kids. Does your
lect songs, dances, children's rhymes
lore of the people: (like skipping rhymes), superstitions mother know an old lullaby that she
1 . Find someone with a story. and proverbs as well. didn't learn from the radio or find in a
2. Put that person at ease. Some collectors are specialists. book?
3. Listen to the story and use a tape Don't forget that very old people
Helen Creighton, Canada's most famous
recorder to get the exact words of folklorist, once published a book that might have the best stories of all.
the storyteller. contained only ghost stories. Others col- Collecting folklore is fun. Almost
4. Put the story into a category. lect Indian tales. Some specialize in rid- anyone can do it.
Who First
Storytelling in the Village of Hythe
Collected Lore?
There is a real live folklorist in Hythe. travellers who stop at the Hythe Her-
Her name is Olive Stickney and she has itage and Historical Centre. Minstrel — a medieval travelling
collected more than 200 stories already. She said she has always been inter- musician
There is no sign she is about to stop. ested in h istory and in making sure the Troubadour — a strolling minstrel
Like many folklorists, Olive is also stories of the pioneers are not lost. Minnesinger — a German travelling
a storyteller. In this, she follows in the She first started collecting when she
poet and singer
footsteps of the minstrels, troubadours helped put together the Hythe history Gleeman — an unaccompanied singer
and chroniclers of old. book. Since Pioneer Roundup was pub- Remembrancer — someone who
In bygone days, before newspapers, lished, she has collected another 180 remembers the history of the people
magazines, radio, television and even pioneer stories as well as 50 more found Chronicler — a recorder of historical
the telephone, people learned their his- in the records of the school district. events, like wars and crusades
tory and the news from wandering sto- If you stop at the Centre, Olive will
rytellers. tell you a story and then ask you to tell
one in return.
Olive Stickney doesn't wander, but Answers to Interesting
she collects the stories of oldtimers in
What a wonderful way to keep folk- Things
Things about Interesting
the Hythe area as well as those of the lore from being lost.
154.5 km (96 miles).
Peter Pond.
Sawridge.
Clearwater, Horse, Hanging-
stone and Athabasca Rivers.
The Lake Athabasca region was
the richest fur area in the west.
The Mackenzie Highway.
Grimshaw.
The Whooping Crane.
Partly in Alberta, partly in the
Northwest Territories, beginning
just below the 58th parallel.
By boat or plane.
The North- West Company.
No.
Lake Athabasca.
Meanook.
No.
2*1