Canadian Northern Society
P.O.
Box 142, Big Valley, Alberta T0J 0G0
Dominion of Canada
Telephone: +1 403 876 2242
|
Canadian Northern Society
P.O.
Box 142, Big Valley, Alberta T0J 0G0
Dominion of Canada
Telephone: +1 403 876 2242
|
1882-01-01 (120 years ago) William Cornelius Van Horne is appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Van Horne succeeded in laying 770 km of track across the Prairies in the summer of 1882.
We welcome the following new members to the society:
Norm’s grandfather, Sam Sliter was a Canadian Northern Railway locomotive engineer and at one time lived and worked out of Lucerne, British Columbia. His father, Vern Sliter was also a CNR hogger, and was born in Lucerne. Please welcome Norm to the society.
Mackenzie and Mann fund: Your society contributed recent community donations to the Royal Canadian Legion (Big Valley Branch), the Big Valley Children’s Christmas Party, and to the Big Valley Library.
Outstanding Requests for Help: We are still looking for volunteers to help caretaking work at Big Valley and Meeting Creek from time to time. Duties include painting, grass mowing, and general maintenance. Spring will be here again before we know it. Please call Harry Stuber if you can help.
We had a corn supper for our volunteers here at the station on September 7. Thirty-one were in attendance and ten people were unable to come. Our school program began again in October. We had a field day for 40 children who enjoyed a harvest festival on October 12. The day included making pumpkin cookies, building scarecrows, and games, stories, songs and crafts. Our first grade-four program class was on October 14.
The Battle River Model Railway Society attended the Model Train Show on September 22 and 23 at the Mayfield Inn in Edmonton. We would like to thank their members for staffing the Canadian Northern Society display and handing out brochures. They reported much interest, and a large crowd attended. Special thanks to Norm Prestage and Ken Morrison for the organization as well as all the other members who attended.
We have completed the Golden Garden’s project here at the station with the addition of a bat box. This program was sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Federation. We have the bird boxes, feeders, plants, shrubs, and a “bat box” to attract butterflies, song birds, and bats to the site. The Canadian did a nice article for us. Fred Murray built the bat box. Fred is a new volunteer. He is in a wheelchair, but very abled in many ways. He is working on putting our acquisitions on a database, repainting the model of Saint Edmund’s church and will be building a model firehall for the garden. We are happy to have him. Bruce built a new ramp to the boardwalk on the north end of the station making it much safer and easier access for disabled patrons and volunteers.
We have had some new acquisitions: Norm Prestage donated a 1940 delivery truck model to the Morgan Gardens. Ken Morrison donated eight model cars and trucks to the Morgan Gardens. Margaret and Doug Andreassen donated a framed picture of the Huxley station. This was a Grand Trunk Pacific Design A station.
We are receiving biographies from families of persons who
worked on the Camrose division. We ask anyone who has a history
with pictures they could lend us to call us at +1 780 672 3099
or e-mail us
at northernsociety@incentre.net. We will be sure to
return the pictures. Next winter we are planning to do the same
project for Meeting Creek, Big Valley, and other areas on the
Canadian Northern. They could start to send us their histories.
In the summer of 2002 we will be saluting the conductor. Walter
Kittler and Al Benz will be two of the conductors we will be
featuring.