RETROactive

Crafting Vegreville: The Story Behind a Century-old Miniature Staircase

November 1, 2025November 4, 2025Jared

Written by: Devon Owen Moar

Over the past year, I’ve been volunteering with the Labour & Industry curatorial team at the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM). What began as a project to help process recent architectural acquisitions—related to Wallbridge & Imrie and Doris Newland Tanner—has gradually expanded into something much broader. I’ve since been fortunate to assist with other newly acquired collections, each object offering its own intriguing story and mystery to unravel.

In particular, individual pieces have caught my attention not only for their craftsmanship but for the stories embedded in them. Each one—whether an architectural tool, scale model or illustration—becomes a small but meaningful window into Alberta’s working and community past.

Among the recent acquisitions at the RAM was a particularly appealing object: a 100+ year old scale model of a staircase from the Town of Vegreville. The model was obtained by the RAM in 2024 after the Vegreville Regional Museum ultimately closed its doors.

Curators from the RAM’s history programs—including Labour & Industry, Daily Life & Leisure and Military & Government History—travelled to Vegreville to identify and help preserve objects of historical value within the RAM’s permanent collection. The staircase model was among those selected and is now part of the Labour & Industry collection.

This remarkable scale model is constructed primarily of wood and mounted on a plywood base. It was most likely built to a scale of 1″: 1′ (i.e., one inch equals one foot). Though small compared to its full-scale counterpart, it’s meticulously crafted—complete with turned balusters, a square landing and even a functioning door with tiny hinges and a wooden knob. The design reflects the restrained character of early twentieth-century domestic interiors, where craftsmanship and proportion met simple, elegant ornamentation. From the graceful curve of the lower steps and railing to the careful shaping of each newel post, every element has been thoughtfully made, likely by hand woodworking tools, and with the aid of early woodworking machines.

Despite being over a century old, the model has survived in remarkably good condition. A few balusters are missing and there are signs of minor repairs, but significantly, the overall integrity of the piece remains. The varnished surfaces retain their warmth, while the hidden undersides reveal the maker’s practical side—unfinished wood, tool marks, and the occasional nail or screw added probably long after its creation. Together, these details hint at a life of use and care, and a level of craftsmanship that continues to impress.

Front (left) and Back (right) Three-quarter Views of a 100-year-old Miniature Wooden Staircase. Source: Royal Alberta Museum, H24.96.63.

“I Myself Consider it a Crime”: Whitecap Dakota First Nation Experiences at Red Deer Industrial School

September 30, 2025September 29, 2025Jared

Editor’s note: September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. Reading residential school histories can be a painful process. If reading this is causing pain or bringing back distressing memories, please call the Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419. The Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day and can also provide information on other health supports provided by the Health Canada Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program.

The banner image above is “General view of the I.I. School.” Date unknown. Source: City of Red Deer Archives, P10890.

Written by: Laura Golebiowski (Indigenous Consultation Adviser) in collaboration with Whitecap Dakota First Nation.

In the late 1880s, a group of Dakota Oyate led by Chief Whitecap were making their home along the northern extent of their territory. They settled near Mni Duza—the South Saskatchewan River—on a landscape known as “Moose Woods”: rich with water, wood, wildlife and plants for sustenance and ceremony.

Chief White Cap (seated centre) and members of his family, ca 1885. LH-5418, Saskatoon Public Library.

Immigration halls of Alberta

September 17, 2025September 16, 2025Jared

Written by: David Monteyne, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary

Between 1885 and 1930, the Dominion government built and operated about a dozen immigration halls in Alberta (and rented space for this purpose in a dozen more towns), from Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in the south to Grande Prairie and Peace River in the north. But what, exactly was an “immigration hall”?

An immigration hall was a place where the federal immigration branch provided free accommodations as well as advice to new arrivals from Europe, the United States and even eastern Canada. These prairie immigration halls were part of a nationwide building program, described in my recent book, for which the federal Department of Public Works designed and built: pier buildings in ports like Quebec City and Halifax (Pier 21, now the Canadian Museum of Immigration); immigrant detention hospitals; and quarantine stations on both coasts. Of all of these, the immigration halls were the most numerically significant, with more than 50 buildings erected across the three prairie provinces. The immigration hall was a newly invented building type, unique to Canada.

An immigrant’s late-1890s sketch of the immigration hall at Calgary, which was built in 1885 and used until 1913. Source: Library and Archives Canada, Department of the Interior fonds, Immigration Branch, RG 76, volume 20, file 180, part 1.

Last call for heritage scholarship applications

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025Jared

Written by: RETROactive staff

The deadline for applications for the Roger Soderstrom scholarship is fast approaching!

The Roger Soderstrom Scholarship honours the late Roger Soderstrom’s work and career with the Government of Alberta in encouraging preservation and interpretation of Alberta’s heritage.

The applicant must be a permanent Alberta resident enrolled in a graduate or extended study program with a proposed research project at that level, in the following fields, but not limited to:

architectural preservation
urban or area planning and conservation
historic resource management
archaeology
history
palaeontology

The research project must have significant Alberta content and will help with the preservation or understanding of Alberta’s heritage.

Guidelines for the scholarship, along with instructions on how to apply, are available on Alberta.ca.

Archaeology in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes: The Occasional Paper Series in 2024 (Part 2)

August 29, 2025September 2, 2025Jared

Written by: Timothy Allan and Todd Kristensen

Archaeology in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes

The volume is dedicated to archaeology in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, Foothills and their margins. The initial three articles were released in Spring; below are summaries for the remaining six articles. They explore projectile points, caches, plant residues and more.

The fourth paper in the volume explores Oxbow and McKean stone tool assemblages at a site northeast of Hinton, Alberta. Taylor Graham applies statistical analyses to tease apart reduction events among the 6,000 artifacts recovered.

Projectile points recovered from FlQg-8. Source: Graham, 2024.

George First Rider’s Stories of Summer

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above is of Áísínai’pi/Writing-on-Stone. Source: Laura Golebiowski.

Blair First Rider is a Kainai (Blood Tribe) Elder and Horn Society grandparent, and an Indigenous Consultation Adviser with the Historic Resources Management Branch. Thank you Blair for sharing your grandfather’s stories. Suukapi!

Written by: Blair First Rider and Laura Golebiowski, Indigenous Consultation Advisers

In a previous RETROactive blog post, we discussed the seasonal round: the Niitsitapi (“the real people,” how the Blackfoot refer to themselves) concept that structures the year and our relationship to the land and one another. In this post, we learn some of the ways the Niitsitapi spent time during the hot summer months at the turn of the century.

This knowledge was shared by George First Rider, Blair’s paternal grandfather. George was born in 1904 on the Kainaiwa (Blood Tribe) reserve. His father was Dog Child and his mother was The Only Handsome Woman, also known as Catching Another Horse.

George First Rider was a kipita-poka: a grandparent’s child. Deeply loved and cared for by his family, he was afforded a lifestyle of traditional knowledges and practices. He was also a member of the Horn Society and other age-grade Societies (the complex social and ceremonial system that Niitsitapi men participate in from the age of seven or eight to adulthood. Niitsitapi women participate in the Motokis Society). Through ceremonial transfers, George learned many songs and earned the ability to conduct many ceremonies.

Dog Child, a North West Mounted Police scout, and his wife, The Only Handsome Woman, members of the Blackfoot Nation.” [ca 1890]. Credit: Trueman and Caple / Library and Archives Canada / PA-195224.

Remembering Rino Basso and David Leonard

July 14, 2025September 11, 2025Jared

Editor’s note: Alberta’s heritage sector and the Heritage Division of Arts Culture and Status of Women recently lost two dedicated and long-serving colleagues – former Historic Conservation Advisor Rino Basso and former historian and provincial archivist David Leonard.

Written by: Ronald Kelland, Geographical Names Program Coordinator and Fraser Shaw, Heritage Conservation Advisor

Rino Basso

Rino Basso was born at Nordegg, Alberta on July 22, 1946, to Pietro “Pete” Basso, a coal miner with significant carpentry skills and Barbara Basso (nee Sieben), who was a notable volunteer in her community and church and had some nursing training. The Basso family moved to Red Deer in 1947 where Pete Basso started Basso Construction and built houses. Being born in the historic mining community of Nordegg and having a carpenter and a homebuilder as a father may have set Rino on a career path in historic resources management from an early age.

Rino attended Red Deer Catholic Separate Schools, graduating from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in 1965 then enrolling in the Architectural Technology Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. In the early-1970s, Rino began working with the Government of Alberta as Senior Preservation Advisor in the Historic Sites Service and, as it is known today, Historic Resources Management. There is probably not a single Provincial Historic Resource designated between the 1970s and 2010s that has not seen his involvement. It seems like his name can be found on every file in Historic Resources Management’s records. Rino used to jovially remark that he had probably driven on every byway, stayed in every motel, eaten at every bakery and visited every city, town and village in the province from Edmonton and Calgary to the proverbial “Cucumber Corner,” his shorthand, all-inclusive term for the small communities and rural areas across the province whose history and heritage he dedicated so much of his career to preserving.

Rino was delighted to find that this structure, one of only two known extant, historic sod houses was still standing, 2013. Even after more than three decades working with historic places, he was enthralled when encountering a new site or building.

Vintage historic sites research papers now available online

June 25, 2025June 26, 2025Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above is a slanted roof, dug-out home with a four-post frame, 1913, found in Occasional Paper No. 11.

Written by: Dorothy Field, Heritage Survey Program Coordinator and Ronald Kelland, Historic Places Research Officer

The Alberta Heritage Survey Program is happy to announce that digitized versions of the first 15 Historic Sites Services Occasional Papers, published by the Historic Sites Service (HSS) between 1976 and 1985, are now available online.

Starting in 1976, the HSS produced and published an Occasional Paper Series about sites, people and historic themes in Alberta. Similar to the Archaeological Survey of Alberta’s Occasional Papers, popularly known as the “Blue Books” or the “Blue Series,” the HSS occasional papers series were produced by staff historians and contractors based on their in-house research.

Fort Victoria Clerk’s House, Provincial Historic Resource, 2014. Source: Historic Resources Management Branch.

Revisiting the Indigenous Resources Guide at The Provincial Archives of Alberta

June 4, 2025June 3, 2025Jared

Editor’s note: The author would like to give special thanks to Quinton Crow Shoe for his contribution to this post. As well, the banner image above features audio reels at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta.

Written by: Mikaela LeBlanc, TRC Archivist Intern

The Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) acquires, preserves and makes records available to researchers. These includes government records, which are records created by agencies, boards and commissions as well as departments within the Government of Alberta, and private records, which are records created by individuals, families and organizations. The records come in many formats and can include letters, photographs, drawings, audio recordings, journals, newspapers and maps, among others. Within these records are also a wide variety of materials that were created by and about Indigenous people and communities.

The PAA first released an “Aboriginal Resource Guide” finding aid in 2006, which listed records identified as being about Indigenous communities in Alberta. This guide provided the building blocks for archival research to become more user-friendly when accessing Indigenous related records. The hearings and report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Calls to Action related to archives and the heritage sector identified ways in which the PAA could make improvements in access to records by Indigenous creators and about Indigenous communities. This coincided with the PAA’s move to a new collections management database webpage Access to Memory (AtoM), and saw the release of the Indigenous Resources Guide (IRG) in April 2023. The guide identifies records that relate to Indigenous people and communities in Alberta that are currently in PAA’s holdings.

The curious life of J.E. Almond and his Great Western Club

May 14, 2025Jared

Written by: David Murray, Architect AAA, FRAIC

This story begins with the discovery of hundreds of artifacts that were uncovered during the dismantling of the interior of the original Pendennis Hotel in Edmonton in 2006. The Pendennis Hotel, located at 9660 Jasper Avenue, dates to the late 1890s when it was formerly named the California Rooming House. The earliest photo of the building is dated 1898.

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