Home | The Black Settlements of Western Canada | Black Rural Communities in Saskatchewan and Alberta | Junkins/Wildwood
The text on this page is an excerpt from The Settlement of Oklahoma Blacks in Western Canada,a report prepared by Michael B. Payne, PhD and commissioned by Parks Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage.Dr. Payne is currently Chief Archivist, City of Edmonton Archives.
Junkins/Wildwood
The first of the Oklahoma Black rural settlements in Alberta was located at Junkins (later renamed Wildwood) roughly 130 kilometres west of Edmonton. Tony Payne and an initial group of about 20 settlers founded the community in 1908. The area chosen was very remote at the time.1 There were no roads in, and the land was heavily wooded and swampy. Getting to Edmonton for supplies took days, and the land was very difficult to prepare for crops. Luckily, the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways were built through the area in 1910 and 1911, enabling the men in the community to find construction work to compensate for the limited returns from their farms. Despite the difficulties with establishing farms, the community attracted additional members and was able to support a church, a school and a lively social life.2
, circa 1940','Empyrean School at Wildwood (Junkins), circa 1940', 'Photo courtesy Michael B. Payne, PhD');)
','African Methodist Episcopal Church at Wildwood (Junkins)', 'Photo courtesy Michael B. Payne, PhD');)
Palmer
and Palmer note, however, that the settlement’s “main export was
people.” During World War I, many left to find work or join the Canadian
Army as members of the No. 2 Construction Battalion. Even more people left in
the early 1920s as a result of Alberta’s post-war depression, and as was
the case with the community at Maidstone/Eldon little
remained of the original settlement by the 1950s. The Palmers indicate that
there were still a handful of aging pioneers left at Wildwood when their book
was published in 1985, as do the authors of Window of Our Memories in
1990.3
Notes
1 It is quite accessible now, however, as it is just off the Yellowhead Highway—roughly halfway between Edmonton and Jasper.
2 There are a number of personal and family histories of Wildwood residents in Carter and Carter, Window of Our Memories that discuss community life in Wildwood. The entry for Thomas Payne on pp.162-65 is typical. Roughly 150 Blacks lived at Wildwood according to the 1921 census. This figure was almost certainly a decline from the years before World War I. According to some accounts it was a Baptist Church. The local history, Where the Lobstick Flows (Chip Lake, 1987) pp. 104-5 suggests that it was an African Methodist Episcopal Church. Members of the Black community also attended other churches including a “Gospel Fellowship” Church, which was still in use in 1987.
3 Palmer and Palmer, “Black Experience,” pp.374-75, and Carter and Carter, Window of Our Memories p. 301. Current telephone listings suggest that most of the families still left in Wildwood in 1990 have now moved.