Alberta History 1902-1904

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Jasper Alberta's Historic View

1902

Failing to heed the continuous warnings of the Indians about the unstable condition of Turtle Mountain, on April 29, ninety million tons of rock destroyed much of the town of Frank in the Crows Nest Pass, killing sixty six people.

Father Joseph Arcade Ethier replaced Father J.M. Jolicoeur at Morinville, (Alberta).

Saint Paul des Metis has 25 ploughs, 5 disc harrows, a thrashing machine, grist mill, and sawmill. The Federal Government, however, still would not provide support for Metis education saying they are not Indians. The more Saint Paul des Metis succeeds, the more Father Therien complains that his assignment is a disappointment and anguishes, as he had previously said, that he had serious doubts about the advisability and viability of the project. All indications suggest he undermined the project from inception. John Bang requested permission to file for land on the Metis Colony but is refused by the Government.

Mr Cashel alias Ellsworth, Neil and Carter is reported in Edmonton from Calgary with a warrant on his head for forgery, theft and later murder. He was reported all over the northwest and was eventually arrested in 1903 and sent to jail for 3 years. He escaped and was eventually convicted of the murder of Rufus Belt and hung February 2, 1904.

The Canadian Government buys the largest herd of buffalo (bison) in the world (400) for the proposed Wood Buffalo National Park (established 1922) in northern (Alberta).

(I)-Armond Trochu b-1857 in Calgary (Alberta) wrote the cowboys are a good lot, but you have to know how to take them. They are proud as peacocks, very pictures with their enormous hats held back behind their heads by a cord, their red shirts, flowing red ties and big Mexican pants. They are afraid of nothing. The Canadian cowboy saddles are noting short of amazing. The French horse could not handle the rigors of the Canadian horse.

September 21: Alex Calvert, Jerry McDonnell, and Frank Urnberg struck oil at 1,020 feet at Cameron Creek near Lake Waterton, District of Alberta. The production rate is thirty to forty barrels per day. Others suggest it is 300 barrels per day and it played out in a few years. The Indians had been using the oil seepage in the creek for centuries.



1903

Billy Cochrane of High River, North West Territories claimed to have introduced the first automobile into Alberta.

Michael Stanislaus Gauthier, with his family, departed Cove, Oregon in 1903. Cove, located in the North East of Oregon, is between the Blue Mountains and the Wallowa Mountains. They departed for the North West Territories because a cousin at Morinville, North West Territories (Alberta) had written to say there was good land in the Territories and no problem with the Native peoples. The Roman Catholic Oblate Fathers, especially Father Morin, are encouraging all French Canadians living in the United States to immigrate to the Territories around Fort Edmonton. Their trip from Oregon to Edmonton is in Red River Carts while driving their flock of chicken and geese before them. The journey from Oregon to Fort Edmonton took four months of hard travel. Daughter Mary Alexazina Gauthier, who is fifteen at the time, recalled that those Red River Carts sounded like wailing banshee's and that the dust is unbearable. The use of axle grease on the carts resulted in collected dust that would eventually seize the hubs to the axles. As a result each ungreased hub rubbed with an ear-stabbing screech.

Mary Alexazina Gauthier recalled her first exposure to Fort Calgary, located near the Elbow and Bow Rivers in Calgary. She recalled her father, Michael Stanislaus Gauthier, saying that this is no place to raise a family because of the drunkenness of the inhabitants of the Fort. They pressed on northward to Morinville, just north of Saint Albert.

Lord Mount Stephen donated $2,000 and James J. Hill $5,000 to Father Lacombe's Saint Paul des Metis mission. The disposition of the money is unknown.

(I)-Armand Louis Leon Trochu, b-1857 hired de Chauney to guide him to Trochu Valley where he staked his claim and built St. Ann's of Three Hills. He built a house and barn and fences and corrals are under construction.

This is the year of the 'Great Prairie Blizzard', accompanied by bright sun light. Many horses went snow-blind and killed themselves by tumbling over precipices. Saint Paul des Metis had a crop failure that resulted in small Government grants to purchase seed grain.

Bankhead 7 km (4 miles) N.E. Banff is created this year to provide coal for the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway). At its peak the town numbered 1,500 people. The mine was closed in 1922 and by 1926-27 the last of the 72 houses was moved to Banff, Alberta.

A local Drumheller rancher recorded the first coal lease in the Drumheller (Alberta) area but never went into commercial production.

Abram Pearce helped build the S.S. Strathcona a steamboat for John Walters and it was used between Edmonton (Alberta) to Fort Pitt for the Bar Colony at Loidminister (Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan).

May: Rev. I.M. Barr arrived with 2,000 British settlers, 2/3 were women and children at the Barr Colony (Lloydminister). They had very few farming skills, William Rendell was one of the few who did.

March 3: The cry in Quebec was "sell everything and head west where, they could get nice farms". Forty dollars for each one over 12 years and half fare for those younger, bought a ticket to Edmonton (Alberta). The LaPierre, Desrosieres, St. Hilaires and Goulet were on their way to a new life this date. Quarter sections of land went for $10.00 each at Duvernay (Alberta).

April 29: At 4:10 A.M. a mountain of limestone destroyed Frank Lake and the town of Frank in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. The slide killed 70 people and buried the edge of the town. More than 500 other people in the town survived the slide. Seventeen miners are trapped underground for 13 hours but managed to dig their way out. The Blackfoot and Kuteni People knew Turtle Mountain as the mountain that moves. They made it very clear that they wouldn't camp near the mountain. The name Turtle Mountain was assigned by Louis Garnett because he said it looked like a turtle.

August 8: Medicine Hat is cooking with natural gas that had been bubbling into the river for generations. The Natives, for generations, referred to this section of the river as the Angry River.

November 19: Morinville, North West Territories, birth (II)-Adrian Hope Metis (1903-1986), son of (I)-Harry Hope and Marie Cecil, Cree Indian. Adrian married ,October 21, 1929, Julia DePagie..





1904

Typical Trochu, Alberta homestead

Count Paul de Beaudrap had returned to France but came back to Trochu, Alberta in 1904, determined to make a go of his holdings. He and his Countess established a new home near Trochu, Alberta, in 1906 where he built up a successful ranch which produced good livestock. Even Counts and Countess had to start with modest homes.

Frederick Haultrain, premier of the North West Territories wanted to call Alberta/Saskatchewan the province of Buffalo but Ottawa disagreed.

Michael Stanislaus Gauthier arrived with his family and wintered (1903-1904) with relatives near Morinville, (Alberta). Daughter Mary Alexazina Gauthier recalled, with a sense of pride, her first Alberta wintering experience in a tent. She explained it had wooden walls and the tent becomes the upper walls and roof. They had to bank snow on the lower walls to provide some insulation. It is with some trepidation that she entered into her first encounter with the Native peoples of this Alberta. A party of Savage Natives arrived and sat themselves down without saying a word. Fortunately her mother Lea Ouimette understood the expectations of frontier hospitality. The code of conduct says they would always have tea and biscuits available for unexpected quests. The Stately Natives ate without a single word being uttered. Upon completion, they took all the remaining food served and departed without so much as a good-bye. She thought this rather strange but surely not savage as is taught in school.

A short time later Michael Gauthier took his daughter Mary Alexazina Gauthier into Fort Edmonton. On the way Michael sighted a number of Natives on a far off hill top sitting on their horses. He told Alexazina they must take the long way around as he is in a hurry to get to the Fort. This sounded rather strange and Alexazina is sure her father didn't want to be caught out on the prairies in Indian territory. In a few minutes the Natives came riding over the hill, hell bent for election. They surrounded us and sternly escorted us to their village. Alexazina, being an impressionable sixteen years old, thought the end was at hand. Visions of being burned at the stake, or worse, are running through her mind. She recalled, we were obliged to recline and they served tea and biscuits. After we had our fill, we are obliged to take what ever is left when we departed. Michael later told his daughter Alexazina that the Natives would have considered it a great dishonor if we hadn't stopped for tea. He said he was in a hurry to get to town and was trying to avoid their village but not trying to show disrespect. This encounter would have a profound positive impact on her opinion of the Native peoples that did not change throughout her life.

Fernand Morin and Charles Tremblay received assurance from Government guide, Ambrose Gray, that they could file on Saint Paul des Metis colony land. The Government rejects their application. Father Therien took an active part in the Liberal elections to swing the Metis vote to support Frank Oliver (1853-1933) a Liberal, son Allen Bowsfield,. The price for his support is the appointment of Abbe Alderic Ouellette as immigration agent to direct the Bishops immigration to Alberta. Father Therien had hatched his evil plot to commence the destruction of the Metis. Father Therien tried to leave the impression that nothing had been decided concerning the opening of the colony. The infamous Frank Oliver (1853-1933), son Allen Bowsfield held the position of Superintendent General of Indian Affairs (1905-1911).

Content, Alberta alias Trail Creek des Metis is abandoned because the CPR passed to the north with a branch line from Lacombe to Stettler. All that remained by 1908 is a Metis grave site with some 40 graves that were covered by spirit houses in the Indian fashion.

Deadman's Flats east of Banff is so named because a French immigrant hearing voices in his head killed his brother.

(I)-Armand Louis Leon Trochu, b-1857 returned from France with new partners Joseph Devilder and Leon Eckenfelder.

Camrose, N.W.T. (Alberta) became a town.

Fort Saskatchewan (Alberta) became a town this year.

Some say the first automobile arrived in Edmonton and Lacombe this year.

The King Edward Hotel is built by Louis Charlebois in Calgary's east end.

King Edward VII gives the prefix 'Royal' to the N.W.M.P. Many Canadians are not pleased.

July 19: The Pearce Bro's steamer, S.S. City of Edmonton, is launched and scows freight and passengers between Fort Edmonton, Fort Pitt and Battleford and was still operating in 1911.

On November 7 (or October 8): Edmonton , a center of 8,300 people, incorporated as a city and became the most northerly Metropolis in North America. Calgary at this time has 12,000 people.

Jasper Alberta's History