Taking Initiative!

rkelland

The Clear Hills Watershed Initiative’s Lake and Creek Names Research Project 

The Clear Hills Watershed Initiative is working on a research project to uncover the local, historical and traditional names used by area residents to identify the creeks and lakes in their region. The Initiative is concerned with water use and quality, and educating the residents of the region about the local water supply. The Initiative believes that researching the names of their creeks and lakes and disseminating that information will raise the profile of these creeks and lakes and will increase the pride and value that people place on these resources.

Volunteers of the Clear Hills Watershed Initiative naming project  making research notes on maps of the region. Eureka River Hall, March 31, 2012.

The Alberta Geographical Names Program was first approached by the Clear Hills Watershed Initiative in 2010 when they were seeking information on having new geographical names officially adopted. The group has been actively interviewing many of the older residents of the region, with particular attention to the trappers, First Nations people and the men and women who have lived and worked in the backwoods of that section of northern Alberta. What the researchers are discovering is that although many of the creeks and lakes in Clear Hills County are not officially named on maps, there are numerous local and historical names used to identify them. The researchers are also discovering the origin stories behind some of the existing official names. These names are often descriptive of the feature’s physical characteristics or commemorate original settlers or trappers that have worked in the area. In all these, local and historical names shed some light on the history of the Clear Hills region.

Sherri Larsen, organizer of the group and a driving force behind the naming project, invited me to attend a meeting of the Initiative’s naming group and to speak at a community supper held at the Eureka River Community Hall on March 31, 2012. What I saw when I arrived was a group of people who are proud of their heritage and who are dedicated to uncovering as much of that heritage as they can while the sources, many of whom are senior citizens, are still able to relate their knowledge. People with knowledge of the region’s back country and waterways are identified and interviewed. Notes are taken about the names they use to identify water features and these names are then annotated on the appropriate 1:50,000 NTS Map Sheets for the region.

At the community dinner these maps were laid on large tables for viewing. As people came into the hall, a number of them drifted over to the map table and made comments on what was named and what wasn’t. Spirited discussion often followed about what such-and-such a creek or lake was named and who had had their trapping cabin on it or which forestry road went by.

Following dinner I gave a short speech to the assembled residents focused on the importance of geographical names as navigational aids and reminders of our heritage. However, with all of my degrees and experience the importance of the Clear Hills Naming Project was succinctly summed up by a junior high school student, who presented a school project about his favourite place in the county. For him this was “Stoney Lake” (officially named Montagneuse Lake). He remembered important gatherings of family and friends and other members of the community at the recreation area on this lake and that lake and those events made him feel connected to his community. He also said that he was able to get most of his information about the lake from his grandfather.

That in essence sums up the role of place names – they are more than navigational aids and points on a map. They represent our community values and history. The knowledge of many of these names and the origin stories behind them lie with many of the older members of our community.

Following the speeches, even more people found their way to the maps and more comments were made, more creeks were identified and more stories were exchanged. As with most community-based heritage, people often believe that they do not have any knowledge of any value or interest; that nobody wants to know what it was like so many years ago. However, it is usually the people who believe that they have nothing interesting to tell that possess the most valuable information of all. It is important for this knowledge of the past to be passed on to the next generation. The volunteers working on the Clear Hills Naming Project are seeking to record this naming and community heritage while the opportunity is still there.

As the Clear Hills Watershed Initiative uncover more historical and local names for their creeks and lakes, they hope to submit them to the Alberta Geographical Names program to be officially adopted. Keep checking this blog, there should be many more interesting names and stories coming out of Clear Hills County in the near future.

Since the March meeting, the Naming Project has acquired the services of a researcher, Dallas Bjornson. Dallas will be spending most of the summer talking to people and recording their stories about the water features in the area. If you can assist the volunteers of the Clear Hills Watershed Initiative in their geographical names research, they would be pleased to hear from you. Contact information can be found at the Initiative’s website under the “Naming Our Creeks and Lakes” link on the website’s main page.

To learn more, visit the Clear Hills Watershed Initiative website.

Written by: Ron Kelland, Historic Places Research Officer and Geographical Names Program Coordinator

Barns & Cities: One Unexpectedly Goes with the Other

Alberta's Historic Places

Reading about barns you may first recall memories of those typical red buildings proudly standing in an agricultural landscape, but do you also remember those barns that were located on the main streets of hamlets, villages and towns?

Coming from Québec City as part of the Québec/Alberta Student Employment Exchange Program, I have worked on a research project meant to increase our understanding of the history of livery barns, and to promote awareness for their historic importance. To do this, I had to go back in time at various archives to learn that most livery barns in Alberta were actually important places, especially from the late 19th century to the 1940s.

Livery barns were located on strategic corners. They were the main logistic centres for cities during the time when horse power was mainly used for transportation. Gable roof, gambrel roof, cubic style, with or without a front wall – all a liveryman needed was a place with stalls to welcome and take care of  horses. Mostly located near railways, hotels and lumberyards, livery barns contributed to a great deal of economic activities. Merchants, settlers, travelers and cowboys would park their shire horses, ponies or mustangs with their carriages in a livery barn for a night or a couple of days. Liverymen could rent animals and agriculture implements, host auctions, organize “bus” tours, deliver milk and wood, and even move a catalogue house all according to the needs of the community. If you were marrying in the 1920s, you also could have called for a team of horses to gently carry you to your wedding ceremony.

G. Rowland Livery Barn Inside View, Edmonton, c. 1920, Provincial Archives of Alberta.

Some livery barns were more high-class than others but they were all meeting places; a place where men could play card games and talk about the weather. Livery barns might also have held suspicious activities. Empty bottles of alcohol dating from the prohibition period were surprisingly found in the walls of the National Hotel Livery Barn, in Calgary. This helps to explain the commonly bad perception that citizens had of the places. The job of the liverymen was dirty and the environment was crowded, as you can see by the photograph.

Livery barns sometime created urban sanitary issues. Hygienic laws and relocating the business mostly dealt with the concerns, but, after the 1930s, if a livery barn was accidentally destroyed by fire, it usually was not rebuilt. From the 24 livery barns registered in the Henderson’s Greater Edmonton Directory of 1913, the G. Rowland Livery Barn, which was located at 12705 on 65th St., shows typical historical trends. Built in 1912, exactly at the highest peak of number of livery barns, it changed proprietor 4 times before it disappeared as a company in 1939. The needs of the communities were changing and horses were gradually replaced for automobiles. World War II accelerated the shift and livery barns were abandoned, used for storage or converted to garages.  Because horses started better than cars in the morning, some livery barns still existed in the winter until the late 1950s.

If you think about it, there was once a time when searching for a place to park your horse was like today searching for a spot to park your car. It seems that livery barns are a forgotten part of Alberta’s history, but it might not be too late to recall the legacy.

Written by: Samuel C. Fleury, Historic Places Stewardship Research Assistant

Planning a future for St. Albert’s Historic Places

Michael

The City of St. Albert is hard at work on a heritage management plan, with assistance from the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program. A heritage management plan will help St. Albert conserve its historic resources. Would you like to help? Please take a few moments and share your thoughts with St. Albert on the conservation of historic resources by completing their survey.

St. Albert, like many of Alberta’s communities, is growing rapidly. Growth is certainly not bad in itself, but it can threaten a community’s historic resources if there are no plans to identify and mange them. This is particularly true in a community like St. Albert: many of their historic places were built during the 1960s in modern architectural styles. We often overlook modern buildings when thinking about historic places, although they can tell us a great deal about a community’s past.

Understanding why a historic place is valuable, even protecting it through Municipal Historic Resource designation, are first steps. A community needs to encourage proper conservation and maintenance and ensure each historic resource has a contemporary use that requires minimal change.

The St. Albert heritage management planning project had its first open house with a few dozen residents at St. Albert’s Musée Héritage Museum on June 20th. You can view the presentation given that night (available on the City of St. Albert’s website as a PDF). You can take a look at the Heritage Management Plan page on the City of St. Albert’s website for more information.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Written by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Meet Dinosaurs, Coal Miners and Pioneers: Adventures in Southern Alberta

Alberta's Historic Places

Where else but southern Alberta can you dig for dinosaurs, ride in a horse-drawn carriage and explore a world-famous rockslide all in one summer? With the Experience Alberta’s History Pass, the whole family can visit all of Alberta’s Provincial Historic Sites, Museums and Interpretive Centres for just $75.

As you stand under the huge Brooks Aqueduct, you can see why it was the largest structure of its kind when it was built 100 years ago. Take a tour to learn how this enormous aqueduct channelled water to parched prairie farmland as part of south eastern Alberta’s vital irrigation network. Stop for a picnic at this National and Provincial Historic site.

In the early morning of Apr 29, 1903, a massive rockslide hurled down from Turtle Mountain and buried a portion of the sleeping mining town of Frank. The thunderous roar of Canada’s deadliest rock slide was heard 200 km away. Visit the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre to explore what Frank and the Crowsnest Pass were like before, during and after the slide. Take a rocky hike and breathe in the crisp mountain air.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Fort Macleod is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps. Learn why it was used as a hunting ground for 5,500 years and the important role of the bison for the Aboriginal people who hunted here. Hike 2 km of interpretive trails, watch drumming and dancing demonstrations every Wednesday in July and August.

In 1909, Fort Macleod’s Leitch Collieries was one of the most successful enterprises in the Crowsnest Pass with 101 coke ovens, a soaring wooden washery and a massive tipple. Explore the ruins of this huge mine on a self-guided walking tour or register for an interpretive program to find out what drove the Leitch Collieries  out of business just 10 years later.

Since it was built in 1891, Calgary’s Lougheed House has been a state home, housekeeping and nursing school, Canadian Women’s Army Corps barracks and a Second World War blood donor clinic. Now the sandstone mansion houses historical displays, an elegant restaurant and historic themed flower and vegetable gardens. Make a special stop at the colourful butterfly-themed flower beds.

The Okotoks Erratic – the world’s largest known naturally transported rock – weighs 16,500 tonnes and took over 8,000 years to travel from Jasper area on the back of a glacier. This is a perfect place to walk your dog and learn about glacial movement and the importance of the “Big Rock” to Aboriginal people.

Treat the horse admirers in your family to a carriage ride around Cardston’s Remington Carriage Museum and introduce them to the museum’s herd of Clydesdales and Quarter horses. Little ones can also try a new mini-chuckwagon exhibit – while watching actual footage from the championships held here, they’ll feel the ride move as if they’re really driving it around the track.

Dino-obsessed kids can prospect for fossils and work in a simulated quarry in “Jr. Dig Experience”, a program just for pre-teens at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, in Drumheller. The Museum’s new exhibit Alberta’s Last Sea Dragon, solving an ancient puzzle, gets you up close to a 12-metre sea dragon.

On your next daytrip, tour Stephansson House north of Markerville, the famous Icelandic pioneer poet’s early 20th century homestead. Costumed interpreters at the house provide a tour with hands-on demonstrations which may include poetry and baking. Stop at the Historic Markerville Creamery 7km south in Markerville to learn the intricacies of butter making.

Don’t forget about all the exciting Provincial Historic Sites, Museums and Interpretive Centres located in northern Alberta!

Search the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the above Provincial Historic Sites, which are also formally protected as Provincial Historic Resources.

Bugs, Machines and Fur-Traders: Experience Northern Alberta’s History

Alberta's Historic Places

You have a busy summer ahead? Northern Alberta’s historic sites and museums are ready for you to come and play! While you’re at it, you’ll learn about bugs, machines, fur-traders and even a tragic battle. Take your pick – or even better, pick up the Experience Alberta’s History Pass. It is just $75 for the whole family to enjoy a year of Alberta’s past.

St. Albert’s Father Lacombe Chapel, once a bustling gathering place for Aboriginal people and French-speaking Oblate priests, Grey Nuns and Métis, is Alberta’s oldest building. Join your costumed guide for a tour of the building, grounds and neighbouring cemetery.

One of Alberta’s and Canada’s most significant heritage places, Frog Lake Historic Site commemorates the events of April 2, 1885, when First Nations’ dissatisfaction with federal government policies erupted in violence.  Visitors can walk along an interpretive trail with tri-lingual signage that places April 2, 1885 within its historic context.

Tour the archaeological site and interpretive centre at Elk Point’s Fort George and Buckingham House, where two competing fur trading posts once stood. A fur-clad voyageur will teach you traditional ways to make a fire, where you’ll gather to hear his adventures. By the end of your day, you’ll know all about how settlers and Aboriginal people lived and worked together.

Historic Dunvegan just south of Fairview, was a 19th century fur-trade post and mission. Join your costumed guide to explore the rectory, exquisitely painted church and Factor’s family home, and trace the footsteps of the trappers, traders, missionaries and Aboriginal people who lived there.

Jump as high as you can and you still won’t reach the top of the 150-tonne heavy hauler at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre in Fort McMurray. Big as it is, it pales beside Cyrus, the 850-tonne bucketwheel excavator in the industrial artifact garden outside! While you spend the day playing, you’ll learn a tonne about one of Alberta’s most significant industries.

Know someone who loves machines? Step on the gas and visit the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin. Vintage cars, motorcycles, planes, tractors – if you’ve ridden it or dreamed of riding it, they have one here. Tour a 1911 factory and 1920s grain elevator, watch a movie in the 1950s drive-in and check out gigantic early tractors, called Dinosaurs of the Field.

You’ll want a whole day to explore Edmonton’s Royal Alberta Museum. Meet beetles and centipedes in the Bug Room, huddle inside a full-sized tipi and visit the Wild Alberta Gallery to discover what lives in a wetland, a mountain cave and even a tiny drop of water or learn about man’s best friend in the “Wolf to Woof” exhibit.

Bring your mom to Rutherford House in Edmonton. Tour the historical gardens and elegant home of Alberta’s first premier then visit the Arbour Restaurant for an oh-so-refined high tea with scones and raspberry butter.

Kids who love to run will love the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east of Edmonton. This award-winning open-air museum has over 30 restored buildings, including a sod house, one-room school, blacksmith shop and three amazing churches. If the kids still have energy to burn, play some horseshoes, make crafts or take in a historical demonstration.

The past echoes gently at Victoria Settlement, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Discover this enchanting site near Smoky Lake, on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River.  Learn the simple joys of old-fashioned games, and join a costumed guide for a tour of the church and 1864 clerk’s quarters.

Don’t forget about all the exciting Provincial Historic Sites, Museums and Interpretive Centres located in southern Alberta!

Search the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the above Provincial Historic Sites, which are also formally protected as Provincial Historic Resources.

Alberta’s Past – Experience It!

Alberta's Historic Places

This year visit a place you haven’t seen in a while — Alberta’s Past. Check out any of Alberta’s 18 provincial historic sites, interpretive centres and museums and experience Alberta’s history.

This easy-to-use pass provides unlimited access for one year from the date of purchase and opens doors to the fascinating world of Alberta’s rich history and culture. Besides offering a variety of educational and learning activities for visitors of all ages, many heritage facilities have a wide range of special events and interactive programs throughout the year. They are exciting places to stop on a vacation where visitors come to learn and have fun.

Purchase an Experience Alberta’s History Pass and receive unlimited admission to 18 provincial historic sites and museums in Alberta for one full year. Experience Alberta Passes are available at all major facilities, at all AMA offices and the two Edmonton Visitor Information Centres.

Family

 $75

Adult

 $30

Senior

 $25

Youth

 $15

Under 7

 FREE

Save the Date! 2012 Municipal Heritage Forum

Michael

Our sixth annual Municipal Heritage Forum will be held on November 8 and 9 in Calgary. Save the date!

If you’re a municipal staff member, heritage advisory board member or council member and heritage conservation is part of your work you should plan to attend.

A formal invitation for you to join fellow professionals who work for or volunteer with Alberta’s municipalities on conserving locally significant historic places will be issued later this summer.

The Municipal Heritage Forum is an annual opportunity for municipal leaders interested in the identification, evaluation, protection, management and promotion of locally significant historic resources to meet with peers and learn about heritage conservation. We will have presentations from municipalities on aspects of their historic resource conservation program and various presentations from heritage professionals.

The 2012 Forum will be in Calgary, at the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre. Stay tuned for additional information.

Want to get a sense of what happens at the forum? Contact us, or check out the blog posts about last year’s forum.

Written by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Stephen Avenue National Historic Site of Canada, Calgary

Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator, Castor

Alberta's Historic Places

When the Canadian Pacific Railway began to survey a grade west from Lacombe to Kerrobert, Saskatchewan in 1904, a number of prospective farmers began to apply for homesteads on land just off of the rail grade.  By 1906, interest began to subside, for the line had not gotten east of Stettler. In the spring of 1909 however, the government of Alberta announced lucrative bond guarantees for the extension of branch lines, and, during the following summer, construction activity was intense throughout the province.  This included the CPR line east from Stettler to the Beaver Dam Creek. Here, at the end of steel, a station was erected and a townsite subdivided called Castor, the French word for Beaver.  As the agricultural hinterland instantly filled up with settlers, the community of Castor became an agricultural boom town. In November 1909, it was incorporated as a village, and, in June of the following year, it became a town with over 500 people, holding all the commercial and social facilities required of a farming center.

Among the necessities for such a town were grain elevators.  As early as June 1910, it was announced that the Alberta Pacific Grain Company was building at Castor, Halkirk and Tees.  The 35,000 bushel structure at Castor would be completed later that fall.  During the winter of 1910-11, local farmers were able to market their grain.  In an unusual move, the elevator was located on the same side of the railway track as Main Street.  In 1913, the rail line was extended eastward past Coronation, eventually reaching Kerr Robert.  This gave Castor a direct line to the grain terminals at the Lakehead.  As a result, three other elevators were soon built, and Castor soon began to benefit from the high grain prices of World War I.  Indeed, by 1917, the original Alberta Pacific elevator was proving too small, and so the Company constructed a larger one, designed to store upward to 45,000 bushels.

Although Castor soon began to decline as a community, its population dropping to 625 by 1941, the elevators continued to survive, being in the center of such a rich agricultural district.  In 1967, The 1917 Alberta Pacific structure was taken over by the Federal Grain Company, and, in 1972, by the Alberta Wheat Pool.  Its most recent owner/operator was the United Grain Growers, which closed it down in the mid 1990’s in favor of a larger and more efficiently run concrete structure in the district.  The structure survived however and was eventually acquired by the Castor & District Museum Society, which is attempting to undertake its restoration.

The historical significance of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator in Castor lies in its provision of structural evidence of the method of storing and marketing grain in rural Alberta during most of the 20th century.  This structure is particularly important in that it dates from 1917, a period in time when crops were bountiful and the demand for wheat was high because of the war in Europe.  It is important also for the role it played in the development of Castor, a community which sprang to life in 1910 with the arrival of the railway, and continued to serve a large agricultural hinterland, the existence of which depended upon the marketing of grain.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator. 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 Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator.

Klondike Trail

Michael

You have all probably seen them – large blue heritage markers located at highway rest areas or points of interest throughout Alberta. These interpretive signs tell of Alberta’s rich heritage. Come, travel Alberta and read a featured heritage marker:

Driving westward on Highway 18, I found this roadside sign a few kilometers east of the Highway 33 intersection, near the Town of Barrhead. Stopping to read it, I learned how close I was to the “all Canadian” route to the Klondike, used during the gold rush. Continuing on my way, I used part of the trail (now Highway 33) to get to High Prairie.

Klondike Trail

When gold was discovered on the Klondike River in 1896, a frenzy swept North America. By 1897 a full-scale gold rush was on. Most “Klondikers” traveled by ship to Skagway in Alaska before crossing the White and Chilikoot Passes to the Yukon. Some, however, chose alternative routes. The Canadian government, the Edmonton Board of Trade, and Edmonton merchants promoted use of an “all Canadian” route. Gold seekers were encouraged to travel from Edmonton to the Yukon via the Peace River Country. Existing trails were very rudimentary, so the government hired T.W. Chalmers to build a new road between Fort Assiniboine and Lesser Slave Lake.

After an initial survey in September 1897, construction of the road was started in the spring of 1898. The Chalmers or Klondike Trail began on the Athabasca River at Pruden’s Crossing, near Fort Assiniboine. Located to the east of this sign, the trail skirted the present site of Swan Hills before following the Swan River north to what would become Kinuso. From there, travelers followed the shore of Lesser Slave Lake west before turning north to the goldfields – a mere 2,500 kilometers away.

The trail followed a very difficult route and was a challenge to all. Countless numbers of horses perished along the way, and travelers’ accounts describe the back-breaking labour and dangers of this trail. By 1901-02 use of the trail declined, and soon after it was abandoned altogether in favour of other routes to the Peace River area. Highway 33, just east of here, roughly follows the route of this early trail, which is linked to one of the most colourful episodes in Canadian History.

Heritage Marker Location

North side of Highway 18, 1 kilometer east of Highway 33.

 

Prepared by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

The Big Four (Part 3 of 3)

rkelland

The 100th anniversary of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede came to a close this past Sunday, July 15, 2012. Today’s blog post will complete the short series about the Big Four and the geographical features named for them. The Big Four were the ranchers and businessmen that funded Guy Weadick’s 1912 wild west show and rodeo, which grew to become today’s Calgary Stampede. Part One of our series was posted on July 10, 2012 and featured Stavely area rancher George Lane and Lane Creek; Part Two was about A. E. Cross and Cross Creek. Today’s post will feature Calgary-based rancher and industrialist Patrick Burns.

Pat Burns: Rancher, Businessman, Industrialist and Senator 

Senator Patrick Burns

Pat Burns is arguably the most successful and well-known of the Big Four. Pat Burns was born and raised in the Lake Simcoe region, near Oshawa, Canada East (later Ontario) in 1856. He migrated west in 1878 and tried his hand at homesteading in Manitoba. While homesteading, he acquired some oxen and hired himself out as a freighter. He also dabbled in livestock trading. Encouraged by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which wanted to prove the viability of long-distance livestock shipments, Burns bought six carloads of hogs and had them shipped east; the venture was profitable. Seeing greater opportunities in livestock trading, Burns abandoned the homestead in 1885 and began trading cattle full-time.

In 1887, Burns was contracted to provide meat to railway construction camps, and within two years he was supplying camps from Maine in the east to Calgary and Edmonton in the west. He established a slaughterhouse in Calgary in 1890 and established a ranch, the first of many, near Olds the following year. In 1902, Burns acquired from William Roper Hull a chain of retail stores and the associated the Bow Valley Ranche (now a Provincial Historic Resource) on Fish Creek south of Calgary. Burns’ company, P. Burns and Co., soon became one of Canada’s largest meat-packing companies, with production facilities and retail stores across the west. It also maintained up to 45,000 head of cattle on numerous ranches in central and southern Alberta, including the Bar U and the Flying E, which were acquired following the death of George Lane in 1927. Burns diversified his company’s investments by successfully expanding into dairy production and fruit and dry goods distribution and, less successfully into the American dairy market and into coal and copper mining and oil and gas exploration.

Burns was active in the community and was a noted philanthropist, providing funding to schools, hospitals, orphanages, old-age homes and widows’ funds. He was also known to send train loads of food to disaster stricken areas. Burns, a supporter of the Liberal Party, was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Conservative Prime Minister, R. B. Bennett; Burns sat as an Independent from 1931 until 1936, when he retired due to health reasons. Pat Burns died on February 24, 1937 at Calgary.

Two geographical features in Alberta are named directly for Patrick Burns, although four features bear his name (Confused? Bear with me).

Mount Burns

Mount Burns is an approximately 2,940 metre (9635’) mountain on the north side of the Sheep River about 40 km west of Turner Valley. In the 1910s, coal had been discovered in Sheep River Valley below this mountain and, in 1913, Pat Burns invested in a coal mine alongside the river. According to historian Grant MacEwan, Burns visited the mine site frequently. The Geological Survey of Canada recommended that the mountain be named Mount Burns, due to the nearby mine and its association with the Calgary businessman. The name was officially adopted by the Geographical Board of Canada On May 2, 1922 and began appearing on federal government maps, such as the 1926 Calgary Sectional Sheet, soon after that.

National Topographic System Map Sheet: 82 J/10 – Mount Rae

Latitude/Longitude: 50° 38’ 39” N & 114° 51’ 40” W

Alberta Township System: Sec 26 Twp 19 Rge 07 W5

Description: On the north side of the Sheep River Valley, approximately 40 km west of The Town of Turner Valley

Burns Creek

Burns Creek flows off the eastern slopes of the Mount Rae/ Mount Arethusa massif. The creek flows south-easterly off the mountain face into the northern end of a small, high altitude lake (Burns Lake) approximately 1.7 hectares (4.25 acres) in size. The creek exist the south side of the lake and proceeds south-east and then north-east until it meets Rae Creek to form the Sheep River. The creek is approximately eight km in length.

Not much is known about the naming of Burns Creek. The creek is named on the 1926 Calgary Sectional Sheet and it is most certainly named due to its association with the nearby mountain and coalmine. Mountains often lend their names to associated geographical features, such as creeks and lakes. Typically, these creeks run directly off the mountain. For example, Storm Creek runs off Storm Mountain and Warspite Creek runs off Mount Warspite. However, in the case of Burns Creek, the creek is not directly associated with Mount Burns, but is located on the opposite side of the sheep River Valley.

National Topographic System Map Sheet: 82 J/10 – Mount Rae

Latitude/Longitude: 50° 37’ 00” N & 114° 57’ 58” W (approximate location of head waters) to 50° 37′ 25″ N & 114° 53′ 25″ W (at confluence with Rae Creek and Sheep River)

Alberta Township System: SW ¼, Sec 19 Twp 19 Rge 7 W5 (approximate location of head waters) to NS ¼, Sec 22 Twp 19 Rge 7 W5 (at confluence with Rae Creek and Sheep River)

Description: Flows off the east face of Mount Rae and Mount Arethusa for eight km until it meets Rae Creek to form the Sheep River about 45 km west of the Town of Turner Valley. 

Burns Lake (1)

Burns Lake is both fed and drained by Burns Creek. It was not officially named until the 1980s. In the mid 1980s, Alberta Fish & Wildlife made plans to stock this lake with fish. Information about the lake would be published in the stocking program’s reports and possibly in tourist and angling literature. A Fish & Wildlife officer familiar with the region recommended that the name Burns Lake be officially adopted. This proposal met with the approval of the Citizens’ Action Committee on Kananaskis Country on March 5, 1985 and by the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation on November 14, 1986 and by the Minister of Culture on May 5, 1987.

National Topographic System Map Sheet: 82 J/10 – Mount Rae

Latitude/Longitude: 50° 36′ 16″ N & 114° 56′ 38″ W

Alberta Township System: Sec 29 Twp 31 Rge 27 W5

Description: On the south side of the Sheep River Valley, approximately 47 km west of the Town of Turner Valley. 

Burns Lake (2) 

The second Burns Lake in Alberta is located near the Town of Olds. It is approximately 22 hectares (54 acres) in size. It is located in the County of Mountain View, about 25 km south east of the Town of Olds and 22 km east of the Town of Didsbury. Pat Burns operated ranches in the general vicinity of this lake. In 1922, S. L. Evans of the Dominion Land Survey recorded the name of the lake as Burns Lake on the plan he drew for Township 31-27-W4. The name was officially adopted by the Geographic Board of Canada for mapping purposes on January 20, 1955.

National Topographic System Map Sheet: 82 P/12 – Lonepine Creek

Latitude/Longitude: 51° 41′ 13″ N & 113° 48′ 09″ W

Alberta Township System: SW ¼, Sec 17 Twp 19 Rge 7 W5

Description: In Mountain View County, approximately 25 km south-east of the Town of Olds.

 Additional Resources:

 More information about Senator Pat Burns can be found at:

Elofson, Warren, “Burns, Patrick,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, edited by John English and Réal Bélanger, Vol. XVI, available from http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=8428&PHPSESSID=bcpbd4hg2slsgaa1bkv04sukr5.

“Senator Patrick Burns”, Calgary Business Hall of Fame, , available from http://www.calgarybusinesshalloffame.org/bio.php?page=laureates/2009/PatrickBurns.php.

MacEwan, Grant, Pat Burns, Cattle King, (Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1979)

Archie McLean

You may have noticed that this is a series about the Big Four, yet there were only three parts, George Lane and Lane Creek; A. E. Cross and Cross Creek; and Pat Burns and Mount Burns, Burns Creek and two Burns Lakes. What about the other member of the Big Four?

The other member of the Big Four that funded the Calgary Stampede was Archibald “Archie” McLean. McLean was arguably just as successful as his three contemporaries, he was a successful rancher in the Taber and Fort Macleod regions, was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 1909, 1913 and 1917. However, unlike his three contemporaries, there are no geographical features named for Archie McLean. A bridge on Highway 864 crossing the Oldman River just outside of Taber is named for him (49° 48’ 48”N & 112° 10’ 15”W) and there is a small lake just east of Lethbridge that is locally known by some as “McLean Lake” (49° 41’ 47” N & 112° 45’ 22” W).

For information about Archie McLean can be found on a recent blog post by Lethbridge’s Galt Museum & Archives, which can be accessed at:

http://galtmuseum.blogspot.ca/2012_06_01_archive.html.

Written by: Ron Kelland, Historic Places Research Officer and Geographical Names Program Coordinator