INTO ALBERTA - wild rose country

28 June, 2008 INTO ALBERTA – wild rose country

We delayed our departure on Friday morning till the rain and wind had abated somewhat – no fun towing a trailer with the wind tugging at it. Eric kept his eye on the weather network and we eventually set off for the 2 hour drive to North Battleford at about 10.30.

Our exploration into the past at North Battleford took place at the Western Development Museum where we visited a 1920’s style heritage farm and village with a functioning grain elevator. This was the story of pioneer life of the time. We were almost the only ones there and took a self-directed stroll around quite a large outdoor exhibit. The buildings were authentically fitted out with all the appropriate artifacts.

The dentist’s office didn’t look all that different from that of old Dr. Woolford, of my Umtali days: the terrifying looking drill, the white glass bowl to spit into and the sterilizing chest in which all his various implements were waiting, ready to poke and prod. My favorites were the bank where the manager sat in a little office at the front and the teller was in a cage, the lawyer’s office filled with ancient books and glum looking pictures on the walls, the police station with the holding cell, and the grocery store, with goods stored a variety of tins and glass bottles but no plastic.
Numerous examples of old rusty farm equipment lay about for us to examine. Eric posed for a photo on an enormous steam tractor and we both climbed precariously up a vertical ladder onto a beautiful steam train.

We spent that night in border town of Lloydminster, half of which is in Sask. and the other half in Alberta. There are 4 impressive tall red posts to mark the dividing line. Our campground was in Alberta so we had to pay the Alberta tax. I’d heard about
Lloydminster and enjoyed spending some time there. This was where Neil and his friends would come for a more interesting night out to the movies or the bar when he was doing the Fire Fighting and Emergency Rescue program at Lakeland College in Vermilion.

The next morning we set off for Edmonton, stopping at the aforesaid Vermilion to look around the college. It was Saturday and no one was in evidence, so we had a bit of a wander, and took pictures of the burned out buildings where they practiced dousing fires and rescuing people. It meant a lot to me to see for myself where he’d been, doing a course that he’d found so stimulating and had thoroughly enjoyed.

About half an hour from Edmonton we stopped at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. The majority of settlers in east central Alberta from the late 1800’s and the early 20th century, came from the Ukraine. Perhaps more so than others cultures, they maintained close connections with each other and so were able to hold onto their traditions and particular identity. All the buildings and furnishings, and even a piece of railway line, had been brought to this heritage village from the surrounding area to tell a “living history” up to the 1930’s. The staff in each of the buildings, were costumed and “living in the past”. They spoke with heavy accents, and encouraged us to play along. It was very informative and gave one a sense of how tough it must have been to build a new life as an immigrant in those days.