Rivers Of Trivia

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.
  

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.