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Rivers
Of Trivia
Arial view of the North Saskatchewan
River
(Courtesy of the Prince Albert Daily Herald)
The North Saskatchewan River
has played a vital role in shaping the city of Prince Albert. For
decades the river has been a meeting place, a source of industry,
and a waterway to adventure, agriculture and entertainment.
Author Victor Carl Friesen has documented the history of the Saskatchewan
River waterways. Many of the following tasty trivia tidbits are
taken from his book, Where The River Runs.
.Did
you know?
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The North Saskatchewan
River was formed about 11,000 years ago by the departure of the
Laurentide Ice Sheet.
-
In 1690, Henry Kelsey,
a Hudson's Bay Company trader, became the first European to travel
up the North Saskatchewan River. Kelsey was 20 years old when he
journeyed up the river. This adventurous young wordsmith wrote the
first history of the Prairies in verse ( ninety lines of unpunctuated
iambic pentameter, to be exact).
- Renowned geographers David Thompson and Peter
Fidler learned the art of map making from HBC surveyor Philip Turner
near the Saskatchewan River. Turnor taught Thompson and Fidler at
Cumberland House in 1789-90 and 1790-92 respectivly. Thompson went
on to become one of the greatest land geographers in North America.
Fidler took over Turner's position as the HBC's chief surveyor in
1792. He documented 5,000 miles of waterways in the West, and was
the first to survey the exact course of the Saskatchewan River.
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The City of Prince
Albert nearly went bankrupt trying to pay for a financial fiasco
on the North Saskatchewan River in the early 1900s. In 1909,
The City of Prince Albert began plans to build a $1 million
hydroelectric dam at La Colle falls. The City abandoned the
dam in 1914 after realizing it would not be economically viable.
Prince Albert spent the next 50 years paying off a net debt
of more than $3 million.
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La Colle Falls was named
after fur trader John Cole, who built a post near the rapids in
1776. Cole had a history of mistreating natives, and he was killed
in a skirmish with a group of aboriginals in 1779.
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Artic explorer John Richardson
helped name several species of birds new to science while traveling
up the North Saskatchewan River. Richardson (b. 1787), a surgeon
and naturalist, was second in command to John Franklin on his
first two expeditions to the polar sea. Richardson spent several
months at Fort Carlton on his way through with Franklin. It was
at the fort that he documented new bird species such as the Gray-crowned
Rosy Finch, Spotted Towhee, Clay-coloured Sparrow, Olive-sided
Flycatcher and Smith's Longspur.
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The North Saskatchewan
River was once home to a huge gold dredge employing 10 men. From
about 1905 to 1909 the steam powered dredge, which was 100 feet
long, attempted to reap gold from the junction of the Shell and
North Saskatchewan Rivers, near Crutwell. The operations costs
were prohibitive, and little gold was recovered.
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The steamboat the Northcote
played a pivotal role in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. During
the Battle of Batoche, the steamboat was supposed to act as a
gunboat, but the plan was foiled when Metis troops lowered a ferry
cable across the Northcote's path. The cable cut the Northcote's
smokestack and sent the steamboat careening out of control downstream.
After recovering from its unexpected adventure, the Northcote
carried the wounded to a field hospital in Saskatoon. On May 19,
1885, the Northcote brought rebellion leader Louis Riel to Saskatoon
for his fateful trip to Regina, where he was later convicted and
hanged for treason.
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Steamboats were once
a fashionable means of transportation to Prince Albert. Steamboats
were prominent on the North Saskatchewan from the 1870s to 1890s.
The boats were a popular form of entertainment and transportation
in thier day. The steamboat Alberta featured a 20-piece orchestra
on a Saturday night cruise, while the boat the City of Prince
Albert transported loggers to the downtown core for late night
fun. Back in those days, stores stayed open until midnight, and
there were dances, roller skating, silent movies to add to the
carnival-like atmosphere.
A few more history tidbits from the riverbank..
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Prince Albert citizens
once burned two public figures in effigy over a telegraph line
dispute. The dispute occurred in 1883 over the question of where
to locate the much needed telegraph line. Small business owners
wanted the line built downtown. Residents in the wealthier east-side
suburb of Goschen wanted it built in their area. D.H. MacDowall,
a principle land owner in Goschen, and Lawrence Clark, an HBC
employee, were the main advocates of establishing the line on
the east side.
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When Goschen residents
convinced Hartley Gisborne, district superintendent of telegraphs
in the Northwest, to erect the line on the east-side, the downtown
delegates rioted. The protesters burned Gisborne and Clarke in
effigy, and pelted eastside representatives with eggs. Because
of the uproar, Prince Albert had two telegraph offices for a period
in 1884. In 1885, the dispute ended when the government decided
that one permanent office should be built where it could serve
the townspeople best, in the downtown core.
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Prominent Prince Albert
citizen Charles Mair made four trips to Ottawa in the early 1880s
to urge the federal government to address issues that eventually
led to the Northwest Rebellion in 1885. Mair was a prominent poet
and proud nationalist who promoted Canada's development independent
of Britain.
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Government geographer
Henry Youle Hind was known to stick his ear in a badger hole when
he visited what is now Saskatchewan. According to Hind, it was
the best way to hear the sound of approaching buffalo. Thousands
of buffalo roamed the Prairies when Hind traveled to the area
in 1858. Hind was sent to the district by the federal government
to determine the suitability of the West for farming. Hind was
impressed by the region's potential. His recommendations were
instrumental in the federal government's decision to open up the
West to agriculture and discontinue the HBC's license to exclusive
trade in the area in 1859.
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