The N.A.R. Station celebrates 100 years!

The Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway was incorporated by Dominion Statutes 1907. Its purpose was to run north from Edmonton “by the most feasible route, to a point at or near the town of Dunvegan.” Of course those were the days when it was believed Dunvegan would amount to a great centre instead of the iconic crossing we know it as today.

In the early 1900s, railways were the veins of the country. Across them, from coast to coast, steam engines carried the nation’s manufactured, agricultural, and raw materials. Such an efficient system contributed millions to the nation’s economy. It allowed people to travel more frequently and with greater ease, and also opened the way for better national communication systems with the telegraph lines which often ran parallel to the tracks. It was a time when if you were ‘an-up-and-coming town’, a place with a good future and not just ‘any old town’ you were on the railway – it was your link to the outside world, to investors, to product markets, to labour forces. No better example could be found than Peace River and Grouard. Both were small communities that started as service points. Both were of a comparable size, and offered the same sorts of services. However, when Grouard was by-passed by the railway in 1914, and Peace River received its own station, Peace River prospered, while Grouard gradually declined.

The railway made it to Judah Hill in 1915, and passengers and goods could disembark and embark there for trains to Edmonton and Grande Prairie. Railway workers were busy erecting the Heart River Trestle (completed May of 1916) and others the railbed from the Heart River, across Pat’s Creek to where the station is. A spur line was also in the works for the warehouse district near the river. Trains were anticipated to be running to the site of the station as early as the end of July – right around this time of month. The station that was to be erected was meant to “be the largest and best building of the kind erected on the lines of the company.” And was it! It was on par with Grande Prairie’s, McLennan’s and later Fahler and Spirit River. It was expected to be in use by the end of the summer.

The N.A.R. railway station shortly after Northern Alberta Railways
was formed in 1929, awaiting the arrival of Lord and Lady Tweedsmuir,
the Governor General of Canada and his wife. From the Cruickshank
Family fonds, F044.002.103.

The E.D. & B.C. was optimistic in 1916. Surveying crews worked on establishing future routes from Peace River to Fort Vermilion via Battle River (Manning). Can you imagine how different Fort Vermilion might be had they been successful?  

The railway continued west with the completion of the Million Dollar Bridge in 1918, reaching Berwyn in 1921, Whitelaw in 1924, Fairview in 1928, and Hines Creek in 1930 when the railway movement had run out of steam and the Great Depression began. 

The station building was enlarged in the late 1930s, and passenger service ceased in May of 1960. It was designated as a Provincial Historic Resource 29 Apr 1988. Rescued in 1992 and restored to its former glory (and thankfully repainted from the N.A.R. colours) the building is a lasting reminder of our proud railway heritage.  Thankfully Peace River is lucky, and the lovely simple Edwardian building is still with us today to celebrate 100 years. 

Join us for a BBQ, pie and ice cream Saturday Jul 30^th from 11 to 2pm at the NAR station in Peace River to celebrate its 100^th birthday. Details can be found on the Peace River Museum Facebook page or on the town’s website: http://bit.ly/2auivuf . The museum has also issued a series of archival postcards commemorating the community's milestones including the NAR Station, Heart River trestle and the D.A. Thomas – these are available for sale in our giftshop.

The postcard available for sale in the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre commemorating the NAR station's 100th birthday. Drop by and browse our selection of other anniversary postcards.

International Museum's Day!

By Laura Love
On Wednesday, May 18^th 2016, the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre will be celebrating INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM’S DAY! This event is celebrated internationally to raise awareness of the importance of museums as crucial community centres, institutions of knowledge, cultural exchange and locations of enjoyable learning and has been celebrated by the ICOM (The International Council of Museums) since 1977.

We decided to celebrate with a cake!

The term ‘museum’ has held many different meanings since being translated by the classical Greek word, mouseion, meaning ‘the seat of muses.’ The first ‘museum’ of this context is thought to have been the Museum at Alexandria, the great library that held irreplaceable manuscripts of science and math, and where great scholarly debate occurred. In the early 15^th century the definition of museum would be used to describe the collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, that included fine art, sculpture and manuscript. This did however put more of an emphasis on the comprehensive of the collection itself and less about philosophical discussion and academic pursuits as the Museum at Alexandria did. Changing again, in 17^th Century Europe, museum was being used to describe what were called, ‘Cabinets of Curiosities.’ These rooms were characterised by “haphazard assemblages of
curious, wondrous, or singular things.” Souvenirs were collected usually by the master of the house from his ‘Grand Tours’ and kept in his own private museum.  If these private collections were transferred in any way to a library or university, which in many cases they were, a separate building would have been built to house and accommodate these items. Thus, the idea of an institution called a museum, an establishment to preserve and display a collection to the public was well established in the 18th century.

Today, museums have taken on an even more encompassing definition. In 2007, the International Council of Museums agreed that, ‘A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.’

This year, The ICOM has dedicated the 2016 theme of International Museum’s Day to, ‘Museums and Cultural Landscapes.’ The IOCM has released this statement for this year, “The theme Museums and Cultural Landscapes makes museums responsible for their landscapes, asking them to contribute knowledge and expertise and take an active role in their management and upkeep. The primary mission of museums is to oversee heritage, whether it be inside or outside their walls. Their natural vocation is to expand their mission and implement their own activities in the open field of cultural landscape and heritage that surrounds them and for which they can assume varying degrees of responsibility.”

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie recognizes and takes the role of cultural organization, in our gathering of our community’s history, traditions, oral histories and preservation of tangible items seriously. 

The Peace River Museum will be open from 10am to 7pm on Wednesday, May 18^th 2016 for a Museum Open House! Do you have ANY questions about donation or loan procedures? Or would you like to know the process that an item goes through once accepted into the museum’s permanent collection? Please, come with your questions, and have an exclusive sneak peek into the Peace River Museum, Archives, and Mackenzie Centre’s world!

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Its Wildlife Week! And Canada Celebrates an Important Anniversary!!

Canada is celebrating a very important centenary this week! The year 2016 marks the 100^th anniversary of the signing of the Migratory Birds Convention between Canada and the United States. This treaty embraces the important need to conserve our wildlife, as well as their habitats, and focuses on all of the wonderfully winged birds (that is, if it does not include insects and bats who also have wings) that inhabit our skies. And it just so happens that the week of April 10^th is Wildlife Week!

This conservation work began with John Thomas Miner, also known as Jack Miner, or the ‘Father of North American Conservationism.’ Growing up in Ontario, Jack’s careful observation of the migratory bird path began when he noticed that Canada geese were stopping on ponds on his property in the spring on their way northward. From this, Miner had seven clipped, tame Canada geese and created ponds on his property in 1904 to attract more wild species of birds. By 1913, his entire property became a bird sanctuary for all creatures with wings. Three years later he pioneered the banding (the process of attaching a small metal or plastic band around a bird's leg in order to identify individual birds from the band's unique number) of migrating waterfowl. The data that was collected through this was instrumental in the establishment of the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916 between the United States of America and Canada as no government banding programs had been in existence until that time.

Coming forward to today, gathering baseline data in aid of further understanding breeding birds is the mandate of the northern Alberta Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation (BCBC). The BCBC is the only educational and research facility in the world strategically located to study boreal birds on their breeding grounds. Located in Lesser Slave Lake, the BCBC also contributes to the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory.  This project monitors landbird migrations using daily mistnetting (capturing birds in nets using a procedure developed at the Manomet Bird Observatory), visible migration counts (recording every bird species observed within a defined space at set intervals) and casual observance.

The Peace River is an important stopping area
for many migratory birds in the boreal.
PRMA. 2008.082.013

Yet another organization in our area that is not only concerned with birds, but all wildlife in our boreal forest is the internationally acclaimed project called EMEND (Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance). EMEND is a forest research centre located north of Dixonville dedicated to improving our understanding of how the western boreal forest ecosystem responds to disturbances, natural ones (such as fire or pest infestation) and human ones (such as harvesting).

Wildlife Week is celebrated each year around April 10^th, Jack Miner’s birthday, to honour Jack Miner and to celebrate conservation successes as well as bringing awareness to issues still challenging the survival of our wildlife.

If you want to learn more about EMEND, the museum is hosting EMEND 101, exploring how the research gathered through EMEND impacts our environmental stewardship.  We will see you on April 14^th 2016, 7pm at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

Artists of the Month:   You might already know them -

it’s those Sew ‘n Sews!

Beginning as an organization of enthusiastic Peace River quilters in 1997, the Sew ‘n Sews meet weekly at the Senior’s Drop In Centre. Since 1998, the Centre has been the place they gather to share their love of quilting, to learn from and encourage each other and to challenge each other to create special projects, such as, incorporating a photograph into their quilting, creating prayer flags, supporting the Salvation Army Christmas campaign with Bags For Teens or the Slave Lake Relief Quilts of 2012 and they have built and donated over 300 quilts to the local Women’s Shelter. It seems for this altruistic group of artists, that giving your creations away to an appreciative person is often the motivation behind the hours of design and sewing.

The camaraderie of this group of 15 women has taken them on trips together to shop for enticing folds of fabric to the 2015 Quilt Canada show in Lethbridge, Alberta.  

Lois Stranaghan, long time volunteer at the Museum and at the Senior’s Centre, says she sees the quilters at the Centre every week and they seem always to be having a great time together. If you would like to join the Sew ‘n Sews just reach Shonna at 780-624-4125. In the meantime, drop by to view the April Art Wall, sponsored by the Peace of Art club, which currently showcases quilted works from this group of creative and industrious quilters.

 




Terry Alm, Ann Rosin,Shonna Lagace, Lois Laurin  and Teresa Cambridge

Teresa and Ann enjoying watching the curation of the Sew 'n Sews exhibit

Two new fonds for researchers to use - Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route Association and RCMP Centennial fonds

Two new fonds, or ‘collections’ are available to researchers at the Archives of the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre. Our Archivist Carson has been working very hard on processing them for several months thanks to a grant from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation through the Archives Society of Alberta. The two fonds are F055 : Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route Association Fonds and F056 : Royal Canadian Mounted Police Centennial Fonds. Both fonds commemorate big events that happened in Peace River.

The Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route Association fonds (or AMVRA for short) is the collection of documents and photographs pertaining to the association that did a lot of planning for the 1993 Bicentennial. The Bicentennial was commemorating the completion of Alexander Mackenzie’s overland journey – the first white man to cross the North American continent, in 1793. The Association began as the Alexander Mackenzie Trail Association (AMTA) in 1985, and were advocates for the preservation of the Mackenzie Trail, an ancient trade-route used by the South Carrier Native Americans known as the Nuxalk-Carrier Grease Trail. Eventually as the bicentennial got closer, the association became more actively involved in planning the BC portion of the celebration. A group of university students from Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, in northern Ontario, retraced Mackenzie’s route, paddling thousands of miles of rivers across the country. This troupe arrived in Peace River in 1992, and set off from Fort Fork in 1993 to complete the final leg of Mackenzie’s 1793 journey. The Association hoped to reach a national level, with branches all across the country celebrating and commemorating Mackenzie’s milestone achievement and Canada’s furtrade history. Unfortunately, after the bicentennial was completed in 1993, the Association began to lose steam. They eventually became part of the Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historical Society here in Peace River until AMVRA’s dissolution in 2013.

The records of this Association include numerous letters and planning documents pertaining to the Bicentennial and the Nuxalk-Carrier Grease Trail/Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail. There are a number of photographs of the trail and the various sites along it during the Bicentennial Celebrations.

The RCMP Centennial Fonds consists largely of meeting minutes and correspondence pertaining to the organization of the centennial events held in Peace River in 1998. The Royal North West Mounted Police (RNWMP) arrived in Peace River in 1898 to help maintain peace and order. The RNWP was later reorganized into the Alberta Provincial Police in 1917. In 1932, Alberta reorganized its police force again, and joined it with the RCMP. 1998 also happened to be the 125^th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police nationally. Most of the Peace River centennial was spearheaded by Mrs. Beverly Tailleur. She spent countless hours writing letters asking for sponsorship, coordinating events in Peace River including a formal ball, and keeping in touch with what other communities were doing in the Peace region to celebrate. An interesting series in this collection is that of murals painted in McLennan. It is believed Mrs. Tailleur photographed the murals as an example for what Peace River could do. It’s very interesting to see how some of the buildings have changed!

Drop in and have a look at the material. Descriptions and finding aids should be soon available on Alberta On Record and on the museum’s website – www.peaceriver.ca/museum - have a look at what else we have while you’re there!

Peace River's African Canadian Heritage

In today's multicultural society, we sometimes forget that our community, and Canada, has not always been as diverse or welcoming as it is now. February in Canada is Black History Month, and gives us a chance to reflect on the contributions African Canadians have made to Canadian culture, society, economics, and politics just to name a few. Alberta's Black heritage began in the mid-19th century with the migration of escaping Black slaves from the southern United States, and those that were free, but looking to escape the segregated life of the U.S. In moving to Canada they were able to be there own person, but many still faced discrimination and racism.

Dan Kelly and his family moved to the Peace Country in the 1920s, although it is possible they came to the Prairies between 1907 and 1911 with the wave of Black American settlers fleeing segregation. Nevertheless, he and his family, at one time, lived in a house one can see standing amongst the trees adjacent to what is now the Belle Petroleum Centre.

Kelly hauled the honey wagon around Peace River – an essential service in those days. He, too, was called “Nigger Dan” or “Nigger Kelly”. Many children of early Peace River will remember careening wildly down a steep incline, which takes off from 98 Street and 94 Ave., known locally as “Nigger Hill”, near the current Peace Country Co-op.

The Kelly daughters were well- known in town for their singing talents. It was in pursuit of honing these talents that led him and his family to live in Toronto. Dave and Johanna Steedsman bought the Kelly's house in 1937.



PRMA1979.1015.002 - Peace River School photograph. The Black girls in the photograph are thought to be the daughters of Mr. & Mrs. Dan Kelly. They were: Elizabeth, Emma & Stella.

Kelly, eventually returned to Peace River, alone. He lived for a time with Mrs. Magrum who was raising her family on her own at the time. As Lois Stranaghan recalls "At that time, everyone was poor - some more, some less - one cannot be critical of how people made their way." It is believed that a child was born from this relationship. Some sources say that Dan died of a heart attack but there are no confirmations of this.

The Museum would appreciate receiving more information and recollections about the Dan Kelly family and contemporary Black Canadian stories and experiences in Peace River.