<
 
 
 
 
?
>
hide You are viewing an archived web page collected at the request of University of Alberta using Archive-It. This page was captured on 16:11:36 Dec 08, 2010, and is part of the HCF Alberta Online Encyclopedia collection. The information on this web page may be out of date. See All versions of this archived page. Loading media information

Heritage Community Foundation Presents
Alberta Online Encyclopedia

Top Left Corner

Top Right Corner

Top Right Corner
Home Top English | Français Sitemap Search Partners Help
Home Bottom
  • Home
  • Land of Opportunity
  • Settlement
  • Rural Life
  • Links
  • Resources
  • Contact Us!
  • Heritage Community Foundation
  • Heritage Community Foundation Logo

The Heritage Trails are presented courtesy of CKUA Radio Network and Cheryl Croucher

CKUA Radio Network logo

Visit Alberta Source!

Government of Alberta

Government of Canada

 

Grande Prairie

Listen to this Heritage Trail

Since before the days of the fur traders, Grande Prairie has been know for its large, flat prairie landscape and, as historian Don Wetherall indicates, it became a name enshrined by developers at the turn of the century who capitalized on settlement in the north.

Well, Grande Prairie was developed by a group of Edmonton real estate promoters who established a company called the Argonauts Company in 1909. This company had purchased 80 acres of Métis scrip, near the site of a Roman Catholic mission.
The Company created a town site by surveying the land and laying out lots, which it planned to sell to settlers who were then beginning to arrive in increasing numbers in the Peace River country.
The Company named their new town Grande Prairie City and they began advertising that it had a great future. And they also lobbied for railway connections. And while the railway did not arrive immediately, other important institutions soon set up in the new town.

By 1911, Grande Prairie had a bank, a post office and a Dominion Lands Office where settlers could register their homesteads. By 1916, the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway built a line north linking Grande Prairie to Edmonton.

The railway company had planned to build westward from Grande Prairie immediately. But this construction was postponed for 12 years because the company was in financial trouble and, ultimately, went bankrupt.
So Grande Prairie became, for a time, the head of steel, and this was good for Grande Prairie. It gave the town's business community a strong advantage over business in neighbouring districts. And Grande Prairie never lost the economic advantage that this head start gave it.

Settlement grew at an ever-increasing pace. By 1916, there were over 30 businesses in Grande Prairie. By 1920, there were over 75. Eventually the rail line was extended further west but, unlike other towns, Grande Prairie continued to prosper.

There was a great deal of concern in Grande Prairie in the mid-1920s when the construction of the line westward from Grande Prairie was under way. And Grande Prairie business leaders openly worried that their trade would be drawn away by towns like Wembley further west. But this did not happen and Grande Prairie's advantages were very solid.

As the years rolled by, more services came to Grande Prairie. All this helped establish the city as the major urban center in the southern Peace River country.

On the Heritage Trail,

I'm Cheryl Croucher.

Close this window

Albertasource.ca | Contact Us | Partnerships
            For more on the history of settlement in Alberta, visit Peel’s Prairie Provinces.