Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, stretches along both banks of the North Saskatchewan River in roughly the center of the province. This is a dynamic and rapidly growing metropolis. Edmonton lies in the northern extremities of the great Canadian prairies and is the center of the wheat-growing region
which extends to the north and to the east but soon changes to vast expanses of forest and lakes. Since its very beginnings the city has been the gateway to the north and an important communications center.
Giant refineries and petro-chemical works have sprung up in the south-eastern part of the city. During the last twenty years whole streets in the inner city have had to be sacrificed to make way for hyper-modern high-rise buildings, side by side with congress halls, leisure facilities and large shopping centers. The West Edmonton Mall is the largest leisure and shopping center in the world, where even during the long cold winters, when temperatures average 215°C (5°F), shoppers are still enticed to linger.
In the mainly dry and warm summers many people are attracted by the various charmingly laid-out squares, the parks along both sides of the North Saskatchewan River and the numerous lakes around the city.
The city has also invested in art and culture and built theatres and museums. A start has also been made on cleaning and restoring the older parts and buildings. In spite of the oil and construction boom of the 1970s and 1980s something of the typical West Canadian atmosphere can still be detected in Edmonton.
Edmonton was founded on the fur trade. Back in the 17th c. hunters from the two rival fur companies made their way through the fur-rich region of Northern Alberta. In 1795 both the North West Company (Fort Augustus) and the Hudson's Bay Company (Edmonton House) set up trading posts along the North Saskatchewan River for the Cree and Blackfoot Indians living there. The two posts were protected by a common wooden palisade almost 5 m (16 ft) high, and soon developed into the chief administrative and supply centers for the whole of the Saskatchewan Basin. Almost everyone traveling north or to the Pacific stopped off in Edmonton.
In the 1870s the first settlers came to the region and in 1874 a base for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was set up. The timber industry gradually began to oust the fur-trade and river traffic on the North Saskatchewan became more and more important. Initially the town's development was hampered by the decision of the Canadian Pacific Railway to build the transcontinental line through the more southerly town of Calgary, and it was not until 1891 that the railway age started in earnest for Edmonton. When in 1897/1898 the rush for gold in the Klondike (Yukon) began the town became the chief maintenance center. Within a short time its population sextupled, and so there was no question that Edmonton would be chosen as the capital when the province of Alberta was founded in 1905.
Two new railway lines were built, and from 1915 onwards Edmonton quickly developed into the main western rail junction. More and more European immigrants settled here and in the area around. In the 1930s bush-pilots began to take provisions to the remote settlements in the north. The building of the Alaska Highway in 1941 brought a new upturn in economic fortunes and the discovery of rich oil deposits in 1947 in Leduc 40 km (25 mi.) to the south-west was the start of the transformation of the western provincial town into a modern industrial city.
Print this page
Add to Favorites
