North America - Jen and Garry 2012: Newsletter 10

Newsletter 10 - August 2013

Edmonton (area population just over a million) is the capital of Alberta, a lovely city with the Saskatchewan River dividing the downtown and Government buildings on the north side,

Edmonton skyline

from the university and the older residential area on the south side. Lauren, a friend of Carolyn’s who’d been working with her in London lives here,

Jen and Garry with Lauren and Matt

and she insisted we meet her and her family, which we did. We had a lovely time with them, being shown the city and surrounds by Fran and Nick,

Fran and Nick with Garry and Jen

while the RV had a service, and enjoying a BBQ that evening in their home with homemade Saskatoon Pie. The small dark coloured berries are a little like small blueberries and they’re ready for picking right now.

The city is set out on a grid with streets going North South and avenues going East West- unusual to us at first but very ordered and easy to find your way around after using it a few times. We had a stroll around Churchill Square,

Churchill Square

Clock tower and Carillon in Churchill Square

visited the new building for the Art Gallery

Art Gallery

and then we all went to see Rutherford House, built for the first Premier of Alberta in 1907.

Rutherford House

The West Edmonton Mall has been the largest shopping mall in the world from 1981 to 2004 under the one roof. Now it is the fifth largest (most of the larger ones are in China). It is unbelievable, with over 800 stores and services, 100 food outlets, parking for 20,000 vehicles and attracting between 60,000 – 150,000 shoppers daily.

West Edmonton Mall - Galaxyland

Besides the shopping there are many attractions. Galaxyland Amusement Park, (it used to be Fantasyland until the Disney Corporation took them to court,) has 24 rides and play areas

Loop the loop

including 4 roller coasters of varying speed with the fastest one going as high as 150 metres and doing three “loop the loops” in its circuit.

Roller Coasters

All the rides were packed into an area with just enough room for us to walk between.

Twirly Roller Coaster

There is also a Water park with the world’s largest indoor wave pool

Wave Pool

plus ten water slides and other water play features.

Water slides

People were sunning themselves on plastic “lazyboys” under the clear perspex roof while lots of people were bobbing in the waves on large rubber rings.

Indoor Ice Rink

With school holidays there were kids skating on the full sized hockey rink and other people everywhere enjoying the attractions. For more info, Google Wikipedia-(West Edmonton Mall).

Fort Edmonton could be called an historical adventure park where four periods of time of Edmonton’s early history are displayed.

The train runs around the park

Indian Camp

Pemmican is a mixture of ground dried buffalo meat, saskatoon berries and rendered buffalo fat made into patties - great travelling food.

You are able to catch a train to the fort that was set up as a fur trading post in the mid 1800’s,

Fort Edmonton trader's house

Fort Edmonton - The walls was not for defense against Indians but to stop wild animals, like wolves, from stealing the furs stored inside.

A Gun for 10 beaver pelts

Skin Press

then walk to the street that shows how the settlement began in the late 1800’s with simple homes and businesses.

1850's settlement

1850's transport

The early 1900’s has a street car rattling down the main street.

Early Street Car

Now more sophisticated houses with electric light and bathrooms, post and telephone offices, banks, a penny arcade and the fire hall are all there to explore.

The first house built in Edmonton by the Rutherfords

The modern era of the 1920’s has the theatre,

Capitol Theatre 1920s

drug store, air hanger and motordrome (the car repair and maintenance business).

Motordrome Garage

Many people are in costume and tell you their stories of the time they represent. We really enjoyed the park.

1920's Farmhouse and barn

Not far out of town to the east is the Ukrainian Village.

Ukrainian Village

From the mid 1800’s the Canadian government was desperate to populate the western provinces especially with America only over the borders to the north and south.

Ukrainian Village buildings

Herb garden

They advertised across Europe and particularly in the area where Ukraine is today, offering a “quarter” 160 acres (or a quarter of a square mile) for $10.

House and garden

As most Ukrainians at this time would have been lucky to have 5 acres, many came with their farming skills and did very well across the prairies.

St Vladimir's Church

St Vladimir's Church interior

A lot of traditional buildings have been saved and set up as a cultural village. It was quite authentic with horses pulling ploughs,

Cutting the grass around the church with a horse drawn mower

The farmer with his team

people dressed in costume representing a business or profession,

Grain Elevator

and even the man at the grain elevator or the women in the homes, cooking or tending their vegetable garden,

The sod house

Interior of the sod house

all spoke with a Ukraine accent. We really enjoyed the day in glorious sunshine as well as the borscht (beet soup) and perogies for lunch.

A great way to get around the village

The highway across the prairies was wide and an easy drive.

Worlds biggest Pysanka (Ukrainian decorated egg) at Vegreville. It is also a wind vane

Even the sides of the road are baled

The land “flowed”, not flat but not too hilly either with lots of farming particularly crops such as wheat, barley, lentils and canola.

Canola and oil

Everywhere was green with lots of small ponds or lakes in the hollows and other areas of thick birch and aspen trees. They would have made land clearing quite a task in the early days.

Saskatchewan grain elevator

Old grain elevators

So into Saskatchewan and the first stop was at Fort Battleford where National Parks, who always have worthwhile and interesting places to visit (and our pass is still valid), have reconstructed parts of the original fort that played a central role in the North West Rebellion of 1885.

Fort Battleford

It was built in 1876 as a Government strategy to extend control over sparsely populated Western Canada. The national policy included creating a police force, building a railway to the West Coast and negotiating and signing treaties with First Nations Cree people.

Fort Battleford interior

Louis Riel, a political and spiritual leader of the Metis (people of French/Indian mixed blood), believed the Canadian Government had failed to address the protection of their rights, their land and their survival as a distinct people. This resistance escalated into a military confrontation known as the North-West Rebellion. It ended in Riel’s arrest, trial and execution for high treason. He is regarded by many Canadians today as a folk hero - a bit like Ned Kelly??

Fort Battleford houses

We went to Moose Jaw in southern Saskatchewan, a distinctive name originating from the Cree word meaning “warm breezes”.

A wet day in Moose Jaw

Down town buildings were built in the 1800s with boilers in the basements. To save trips servicing each building, tunnels were constructed linking the basements. Remnants of those tunnels survive today and have become an attraction.

Moose Jaw tunnel adventure ticket office

“The Chicago Connection Tour” follows the story of the infamous American mobster, Al Capone and his frequent trips to Moose Jaw in the 1920’s during prohibition. A change of pace takes you through “The Passage of Fortune”, showing the unbearable hardship and extreme racism Chinese immigrants in the early 1900’s had to cope with while looking for a better life.

Moose Jaw main street

Moose Jaw "wedding cake" house

So we continued south towards Nth Dakota and miles and miles of prairies. The word prairie was used by the early French trappers. It is French for meadow and describes the grasslands with few trees.

Great crops on the prairies

We were near the border when the oil and gas wells started to appear in the fields, and when we were well into the States the development was unbelievable.

Diversification from hay to oil

Small jack pumps became big ones and villages became mobile towns with flattened fields, gravel spread and transportable homes lined up, hundreds of them.

Worker accommodation

New roads had been bulldozed through canola fields to pump sites and drilling rigs.

A hive of activity

All this sudden development and job opportunities has brought many people from across the States. The road works and widening of rural roads have brought those workers, and the electricity industry has their workers too, moving poles and putting up new transmission towers.

Road building on the move

The lady at the salon where I had a hair cut had five men in front of me and said the population of Williston had grown from 10.000 three years ago to 40.000 now, and growing.

It would appear that the road builder's program did not line up with the electricity utility and one of the poles fell over and they had to get a bucket in to hold up the wires

Rent was expensive because of the scarceness of accommodation and many men were living in mobile homes and commuting home each break.

Theodore Roosevelt is remembered with a National Park in the North Dakota Badlands that honours the memory of this great conservationist.

Roosevelt NP

He spent time here in the early 1880’s and was alarmed at the damage done to the grasslands by overgrazing and the senseless destruction of wildlife through hunting.

More traffic stoppers

Following the uplifting of the Rocky Mountains (millions of years ago), eroded materials were deposited on vast lowlands – today’s Great Plains.

A great example of the different strata laid down over time

Streams have cut through the variety of strata revealing white, cream, red, brown and grey-blue (ash from ancient volcanoes), layers that make a stunning landscape, capped by summer wildflowers.