THE EUROPEAN WAR ENDS
ALBERTA HISTORY 1950-1999
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1946
Edmonton's population is one hundred and thirteen thousand, and Calgary had a population of one hundred thousand.
The war chemicals produced at Suffield, Alberta were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean with no regard to their environmental impact. Some suggest this might be a factor in the decline of cod fish.
The Jesuit College is converted to the Charles Camsell Hospital to deal with the Arctic and North West Territories Natives who are considered beyond hope. It is the only institution of its kind on the continent.
1947
The war chemicals produced at Suffield, Alberta were dumped into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia with no regard to their environmental impact.
January 11: The Athabasca River Tar Sands potential is finally appreciated, two hundred and sixty nine years after its discovery by the Nor'wester in 1778.
February 13: At four o'clock P.M., Dry Hole Hunter spudded the second well in Leduc, Alberta, confirming the beginning of the Alberta oil rush. They invited a crowd of five hundred to witness the event, which is very unusual for the highly conservative, Imperial Oil Limited. Rumor has it that Head Office had ordered Hunter to stop drilling on the first well but he practices civil disobedience to bring in the famous well. Later it was said that this was "the single most significant economic and historic event in Alberta".
July: Lac La Nonne, Alberta, R.D. Garneau, the authors first love I learned this summer about platonic love, the real nature of love..
1948
(IV)-Philip Salzl returned from the north, moving in across the road on 80th street in Edmonton. He began working for the police department. He told stories of his trapping days where they had to run forty to sixty miles per day on snowshoes. His generation believes that every boy should learn how to shoot, so we are taken out to the Salzl farm for target practice. He would set up spent cartridges for target practice. At twenty five to fifty feet we are trained to hit the top of the spent cartridges so that it would make them whistle. I believe the principle being taught was; if you point a gun, be ready to use it and hit exactly what you are aiming for. I remember hitting running gophers at one hundred yards or more.
The prices in Alberta were 10¢ for a loaf of bread; 49¢ for a dozen eggs; 35¢ a lb. for apples; 59¢ a lb. for coffee and 12¢ for a movie show.
August: Imperial Oil Limited began its Edmonton refinery at Clover Bar by dismantling the Whitehorse refinery and shipping it down to Edmonton.
1949
John and Alexina Garneau
John Garneau (1885-1949) and wife
Aleazina Gauthier (1888-1980).
This photo is taken at Edson, Alberta. John was working here looking after
the boilers in a hospital. This year I took my first long trip with my
granddad to Edson, he took me on top of hospital to see the mountains for my
first time. It was cloudy and couldn't see them so he drove to a near by
hill where we saw them.
ALBERTA HISTORY
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