Contemporary Drumheller exists because of the resources of
the landboth above and below ground. While the Aboriginal
presence in the area is over 11,000 years long, the first white
man to visit is thought to have been Anthony Henday. In 1754, he
was sent to the area by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and was
led by a party of Cree. Henday was met by a Chief of the
Blackfoot Confederacy at a site West of Pine Lake. He was
received as an honoured guest and the Aboriginal camp was said
to consist of about 200 teepees. Peter Fidler, also in the
service of the HBC, is said to have discovered coal on the banks
of the Red Deer River near Drumheller on February 12th, 1793.
Captain John Palliser also explored this area in the period
1857-60.
Initially, farming and ranching were the favoured economic
activities. In the 1890s, ranchers came to the Drumheller
Valley. James Russell established the Lyon Cross Ranch in the
1890s. He had emigrated from Scotland and was a trained
engineer. He came to Calgary in 1888 to set up the first
waterworks in the city but was determined to ranch and brought
96 shorthorn cattle from Eastern Canada.
But it was with the coming of the railways that Drumheller
became a significant economic centre. The community was named
after Colonel Samuel Drumheller, an American businessman. He
bought the land for the town site from a local homesteader
called Greentree. In 1911 and 1912, Jesse Gouge took out a lease
south of the River in the Newcastle District and, later, on land
south of the railway station through his Drumheller Land
Company. With his partner G. N. Coyle, he opened the first coal
mines in that period and the first shipments of coal were made
by the Newcastle Coal Co. The second mine was opened by Colonel
S. L. McMullen in 1912 on the north side of the Riverthis was
Midland No. 1. These mines were joined by eight others in the
same year, among them mines opened by Sam Drumheller. There was
a flurry of railway building with many spur lines to mine sites.
From 1912 until 1960, 124 mines operated in the area. The town
of Drumheller was known as the fastest growing town in North
America.
Businesses grew up to service the mines and farms of the area
and the community prospered until the economy based on coal gave
way to the oil-based economy with the coming in of the Leduc No.
1 oil well in 1947. In the 1980s, Alberta Culture saw the
potential of heritage tourism and drew on another of the area's
rich resourcesdinosaur fossilsto create the Tyrrell Museum of
Palaentology in 1985 (later the Royal Tyrrell Museum of
Palaentology).
The first record of dinosaur fossils was made by Dr. James
Hector, a physician and geologist with the Palliser Expediton in
1859. He also noted the presence of coal, ironstone, petrified
wood and marine shells along the Red Deer River Valley. Joseph
P. Tyrrell, in 1884, while inspecting coal seams in the area
found dinosaur bones at Knee Hill Creek upstream from
Drumheller. The skull and bones he collected were sent to
Philadelphia and the dinosaur was named Albertosaurus
Sarcophagus in 1905. T. C. Weston of the Geological Survey of
Canada, in 1888, rafted down the Red Deer River and also
collected bones. Eventually, trainloads of fossil remains would
be shipped to Eastern Canada and the US.
In geological terms, the area is a part of the Cretaceous
Era, which began about 135 million years ago and ended some 63
million years ago. This is also known as the Age of the
Reptiles. The area is physically striking with deeply eroded
gullies described as the "bandlands." Over millennia, layers of
mud, silt, clay and sand built up as a result of water erosion
and these hardened into rock. Glaciation scoured the rocks and
further weathering by wind, rain and frost have given the area
its remarkable appearance. The Valley wall comprises the
Edmonton formation. Thus, the physical beauty coupled with the
rich dinosaur fossils, which can be viewed onsite at the Tyrrell
Museum Field Station and in the Museum, have made the area an
international tourism destination.
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