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Overview Establishment People and Events Legacy

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  Ethnic Roots: Métis, Part 1
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Ethnic Roots: Métis, Part 2
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From very modest roots, the Victoria Mission grew into the thriving community of Pakan. 

In 1901 Dr. Charles Lawford was assigned to Pakan to serve as both missionary and doctor. He built a new Methodist church and the McDougall Hospital, where a great number of patients received a dose of religion with their medicine. Lawford tried with modest success to win some of the Ukrainian people to the Methodist church and by 1912 a church for the Ukrainian Methodists opened.

Pakan declined rapidly in the 1920s and by 1921 the mission had closed. The decline was mostly due to the arrival of the railroad in the region, which prompted and eased the transfer of businesses and people to nearby Smoky Lake.  

In 1976 the Victoria Settlement, including the old fort and the Methodist church built in 1906, was declared a Provincial Historic Resource. Today one can visit the site and explore Hudson's Bay Company quarters, the church and the mission cemetery.

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