Author: Alberta's Historic Places

When the Montana cattle industry began to thrive in the aftermath of the American civil war, and the extension of railways to the western states, many cattle barons began to extend their activity north of the 49^th Parallel.  Sensitive to the encroachment of American influence in western Canada, the Dominion government took several measures to ensure the “Canadianization” of this region.  A Department of the Interior was formed to oversee developments on the central prairies, a North-west Mounted Police force was formed to establish law and order, and a Dominion Lands Act was passed to see to the orderly disposition of Crown lands to British subjects, or those who would agree to become British subjects.  Plans were also put in place to extend a transcontinental railway through the region.

Another measure taken by the government to ensure the loyalty of the region to Canada was to encourage a ranching industry in the western foothills, with capital to be provided by eastern Canadian and British entrepreneurs.  For such Canadian or British cattle companies, vast tracts of land would be set aside as grazing leases.  By the early 1880’s, much of the southern foothills of what was to become Alberta was therefore given over to a few major cattle companies, including the Cochrane, Winder, Walrond, Northwest, Quorn, Stewart and Stinson Ranches.  Their success depended to a great extent on the arrival of the CPR, which reached the site of Fort Calgary in 1883.

Another major ranching operation was founded in 1882 by Alexander Staveley Hill, a Conservative Member of the British House of Commons, backed by Lord Lathan.  This was the Oxley Ranch, which came to base its operation on two vast tracts in the districts of present day Champion and Staveley, north of Fort Macleod.  This ranch flourished throughout most of the 1880’s and 1890’s, and, during much of this time, its success appears to have been due to the efficient management of John Roderick Craig.  An added benefit was the extension of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway from Calgary to Fort Macleod in 1892, which eliminated the necessity of making long cattle drives to Calgary.

By the end of the decade however, changes were in the air.  In order to provide a greater population base in western Canada, the new Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier began to curtail the predominance of many of the large ranches by not renewing the grazing leases on much of the range land.  The idea was to encourage smaller independent farms and ranches, which would specialize in mixed farming.  During the early 20^th century, many of the large ranches went out of business, while others saw their scope of operation severely curtailed, including the Oxley Ranch.

During its heyday, the western portion of the Oxley Ranch had based its operation from headquarters on NE14 TP13 R28 W4.  On this site today there is a log house which was, no doubt, part of the Oxley Ranch operation at some point, and possibly the home of its manager, John Craig.  It is located next to a trail that extended from Fort Macleod to Calgary, but which went out of use after the C & E Railway to the east saw the center of activity also shift, when railway communities like Claresholm and Staveley emerged.  Near the house is a wood frame barn on a large concrete foundation built into a hillside which could also have been part of the Oxley Ranch.  The buildings are also spoken of as having been part of a North-west Mounted Police detachment, which existed in the district in the late 1880’s, but was moved to Claresholm shortly after the railway came through.

The Oxley Ranch buildings provide structural evidence of one of the biggest ranching operations in the southern Alberta foothills, prior to 1900.  They tell of both social and commercial activities of the ranch, and of the southern Alberta cattle industry in general during this time.   The buildings are also important in being close to the original cattle trail between Fort Macleod and Calgary, which was the major thoroughfare between these two centers prior to the coming of the railway in 1892.  In November 2006, they were designated a Provincial Historic Resource.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Leavings at Willow Creek (Oxley Ranch), near Claresholm. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Leavings at Willow Creek.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway was planning for its continental line to the pacific coast during the 1870s, a favoured route saw the track proceeding northwest from Brandon, Manitoba through the Yellowhead Pass, crossing the North Saskatchewan River near the small Northwest Mounted Police community of Fort Saskatchewan.  In the end, the CPR chose the Kicking Horse Pass, and the line was extended past Fort Calgary in 1883.  Eight years later, a subsidiary of the CPR, the Calgary & Edmonton Railway, brought rail service directly to South Edmonton, and Edmonton soon emerged as a district metropolis.

In 1904, Edmonton became a city, and the following year it was named the capital of Alberta.  As this was taking place, the city was making preparations for the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway, which would give it a direct rail connection with eastern Canada.

Somewhat ironically, the route chosen for the Canadian Northern was roughly that selected for the CPR in 1877, except that, after passing by Fort Saskatchewan, it was made to swing southwest to include Edmonton. Fort Saskatchewan thus received a railway as early as the fall of 1905.

In anticipation of the arrival of the railway, Fort Saskatchewan began to grow rapidly.  In July 1904, it became a town with over 500 people.  It was, therefore, appropriate that the Canadian Northern construct a station befitting the largest community on its line between Edmonton and North Battleford.  While rail construction proceeded, work WAS begun on a wood frame station according to a newly devised 100-19 plan, which called for a long, vertical building, with an upper floor to accommodate the station agents and their families.  It was located just west of the town center and was completed in October, 1905.  In its immediate vicinity, a large water tower and a Brackman-Kerr elevator were erected at the same time.

Being in the center of a rich farming district, Fort Saskatchewan continued to grow after the arrival of the CNoR.  The railway bridge across the North Saskatchewan also served as a traffic bridge, giving the town direct automobile access to Edmonton some 20km away.  Several other elevators soon dotted the skyline near the station, and a stockyard was located nearby. Read more →

After the Canadian Pacific Railway extended its track from Medicine Hat to Calgary in 1883, land along the rail line became viable for homesteading.  The CPR also acquired 3 ½ million acres of land between Brooks and Calgary as part of its agreement with the Dominion government to build its line.  Here, the CPR subdivided 80 acre plots and proceeded to advertise this land for sale to immigrant farmers.  Because much of the land was bereft of adequate water supplies, a vast irrigation scheme was undertaken off the Bow River to make the land more attractive.

The irrigation project was completed in 1914, but, due to the war in Europe, settlers did not arrive in the area in large numbers until after the armistice.  Many more arrived after the CPR pushed through branch lines to parts of the district in the late 1920’s.  One of these lines extended south of Brooks to the hamlet of Scandia, where a post office had been opened in 1924. In 1928, the hamlet was graced with an Alberta Wheat Pool elevator.

The Wheat Pool elevators were a part of the farmers’ co-operative movement in Alberta.  They had been promoted from within the United Farmers of Alberta by Henry Wise Wood.  A major complaint of the province’s farmers had been the control exercised by independent grain companies which could fix prices at will.  As a result, and given the extreme fluctuations in the international demand for grain, farmers had often gone from prosperity to bust within short periods of time.  According to Wood, the answer lay in a co-operative through which farmers could pool their grain and have it sold at opportune times with the profits shared.  He managed to convince the UFA of this, and, when the Alberta Wheat Pool was formed in 1923, Wood became its first president.  Before long, Alberta Wheat Pool elevators were to be found in most farming communities which had rail access.  They eventually became the largest grain company in the province.

That the first elevator in Scandia should have been a Wheat Pool one was appropriate, for the farmers in this district had been coming together for some time over their collective bitterness against the CPR for having sold them their land.  Though the yields of grain were high, 80 acres was simply not enough land on which to establish a profitable farm.  The farmers formed associations to deal with the CPR, which argued that its irrigation projects were not turning a profit, despite what the farmers were paying for water.  Finally, in 1934, a number of them at the eastern end of the area, led by one Carl Anderson, formed what they called the Eastern Irrigation District, which took over the management of the water supply from the CPR.  Despite its cost, the irrigated water proved its worth in dry years, when other parts of southeastern Alberta were succumbing to drought conditions.

The productivity of the land in the Scandia district was such that, in 1937, the Federal Grain Company also built an elevator there.  With World War II, the demand for western Canadian grain rose, and the train service to Scandia became thrice weekly.  Following the war, the Pool bought out the Federal elevator and soon shut it down.  Eventually, improved roads were making it convenient for farmers in the northern parts of the district to take their grain to Brooks, and, so, the elevator at Scandia was closed in 1977, as was the train service to the community.  The elevator, however, was acquired by the Eastern Irrigation District Historical Park and Museum, and is now the centerpiece of an agricultural museum.  In 2008, it was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Alberta Wheat Pool Grain Elevator and Bow Slope Stockyard. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance for either its history or architecture. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the site.

In 1909, Premier Rutherford of Alberta announced a program of vast railway expansion in the province, offering bond guarantees to major railway companies to build branch lines in districts where they seemed warranted.  The railway company to undertake the greatest extent of track as a result of this was the Canadian Northern, which had arrived in Edmonton directly from the east in 1908, and was soon to extend its track north to Sangudo and Athabasca and west into British Columbia.

Other Canadian Northern lines were built in the southern part of the province.  One of the more significant of these was between Stettler and Camrose, and was completed in 1911, opening up new farmland for settlement.  As was its practice, the Canadian Northern erected stations at key points along the line, and, in some cases, townsites were subdivided.  This was the case with Meeting Creek, which was located in a district that had already been settled, largely by farmers from the United States.  When the railway came through, the tiny community, established in 1905, was moved five miles to be included in the new townsite.

Being less than 18km from the larger farming centers of Donalda and Bashaw, and 30km away from Camrose, Meeting Creek never grew to sufficient size to be incorporated.  It did, however, possess most of the amenities of a prairie farming community, including stores, garages, livery stables, a blacksmith shop, a bank, a hotel, and, eventually, three grain elevators.  It also had a small, but busy, railway station, constructed in 1913.  This was a two-story structure with a warehouse attached.  It was subdivided into an office, waiting room, freight house, and living quarters for the station agent and his family.

Life in the community of Meeting Creek evolved around the businesses along Main Street, which ran perpendicular to the station, and the station itself.  All passengers and incoming and outgoing freight were handled by the station agent, including the export of grain.  The agent was also the district telegrapher.

When the Canadian Northern was merged with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1919 to form Canadian National, many small branch lines were closed down in Alberta, but the Camrose – Stettler line remained open, as sufficient agricultural products were being shipped out from the district in between to warrant this.  By the 1960’s, however, improved highway traffic saw the closure of train service in Meeting Creek, although the Camrose – Stettler branch line would remain operating until 1997.

Being that there was little development in Meeting Creek in the years after the railway station was closed, the structure managed to survive, along with the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator, and, in 2008, it was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.  Today it is an integral part of the Canadian Northern Society’s tour of significant rail sites.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Canadian Northern Railway Station in Meeting Creek. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance for either its history or architecture. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Meeting Creek railway station.