Tidbits of Alberta

[Red Bullets]

You had to be hardy back in the day. Not much doctoring around back then.

In 1796 at Buckingham House, near Elk Point... There was an interesting mention of the medical supplies at the fort. Many of the "medicines" were unusable being that they had dried up.

-1 bottle hartshorn
-1 bottle Turlington
-1 bottle lavender,
-sm. bottle tincture of rhubarb
-1 lb. Jalap
-Ipecacuanha ½ lb.
- 2 lbs Glauber salts, 2 lbs sulphur, 2 lbs basilicon,
-¼ lb powder of rhubarb
-2 lbs Spanish juice
- 4 oz strengthening plaster
- 5 gallipots, 24 small vials, some corks, part of an old sheet
- lint for dressings.

[Red Bullets]

Living in this 'territory' 200 or so years ago was definitely not for the faint hearted. Thought i would share some tidbits that tell of an aspect of our history that you don't hear much about.

Some excerpts from the past that will make us really appreciate today's medical advances. The excerpts are from a publication called "Medicine in the Northwest."

-In December, 1800, when some of the men had a rash and itching, Alexander Henry gave them a compound of high wine and gunpowder to rub the rash with 'which appeared to ease them and dry up the sores'.

-In 1814 at Ft. George (Astoria), 9 men were bed-ridden with venereal disease (Henry, 868). Alexander Henry remarks that : '...several of our men have venereal disease; two cannot walk. By spring, I fear, at least half our men will be disabled by this disease ; at present few are free from it, and some are far gone. This foul malady is so prevalent among our people and the women in this quarter that it may seriously affect our commerce' (Henry, 836). He notes that the men were given mercury as a treatment.

-Gangrene — In January of 1793, Alexander Mackenzie treated an Indian who had lost his thumb when his gun burst. The hand was gangrenous and the thumb dangled by a strip of flesh. He washed the wound with spruce-fir bark juice and then put a spruce-fir root bark poultice on it, which he changed three times a day. The gangrene cleared in a few days, and the loose skin was dried with a vitrol solution until Mackenzie could remove the thumb. After a month of treatments the patient recovered ( Mackenzie, 248).

-Alexander Henry the elder leaves us with this rather interesting comment from 1763 : 'Bleeding is so favorite an operation among the [Indian] women, that they never lose an occasion of enjoying, whether sick or well. I have sometimes bled a dozen women in a morning, as they sat in a row, along a fallen tree, beginning with the first—opening the vein—then proceeding to the second—and so on, having three or four individuals bleeding at the same time'.
~~~~~

[drhu22]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

You had to be hardy back in the day. Not much doctoring around back then.

In 1796 at Buckingham House, near Elk Point... There was an interesting mention of the medical supplies at the fort. Many of the "medicines" were unusable being that they had dried up.

-1 bottle hartshorn
-1 bottle Turlington
-1 bottle lavender,
-sm. bottle tincture of rhubarb
-1 lb. Jalap
-Ipecacuanha ½ lb.
- 2 lbs Glauber salts, 2 lbs sulphur, 2 lbs basilicon,
-¼ lb powder of rhubarb
-2 lbs Spanish juice
- 4 oz strengthening plaster
- 5 gallipots, 24 small vials, some corks, part of an old sheet
- lint for dressings.

It would be interesting to know how effective those medicines were. Heres some wiki info on rhubarb...

Historical cultivation
The Chinese call rhubarb "the great yellow" (dà huáng 大黃), and have used rhubarb root for medicinal purposes for thousands of years.[2] It appears in The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic which is thought to have been compiled about 2,700 years ago.[10] Though Dioscurides' description of ρηον or ρά indicates that a medicinal root brought to Greece from beyond the Bosphorus may have been rhubarb, commerce in the drug did not become securely established until Islamic times. During Islamic times, it was imported along the Silk Road, reaching Europe in the 14th century through the ports of Aleppo and Smyrna, where it became known as "Turkish rhubarb".[11] Later, it also started arriving via the new maritime routes, or overland through Russia. The "Russian rhubarb" was the most valued, probably because of the rhubarb-specific quality control system maintained by the Russian Empire.[12]
Though it is often asserted that rhubarb first came to the United States in the 1820s,[15] John Bartram was growing medicinal and culinary rhubarbs in Philadelphia from the 1730s, planting seeds sent him by Peter Collinson.[16] From the first, the familiar garden rhubarb was not the only Rheum in American gardens: Thomas Jefferson planted R. undulatum at Monticello in 1809 and 1811, observing that it was "Esculent rhubarb, the leaves excellent as Spinach."[17]

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb

[250mark1]

Originally Posted by Newview01

I'd love some info on the road construction in Alberta. I've never been able to find good pictures / stories. I mean construction from a single horse track to what is the crowsnest trail today.

there is a book that the alberta road builders association put out
in 2005 called Roads to Resources a history of transportation in Alberta
its a pretty interesting read

not sure if you could find it in a library or not it was sent to all memebers
of the alberta roadbuilders and heavy construction association in 2005

www.arhca.ab.ca

https://www.biblio.com/book/roads-re...SABEgLI5fD_BwE

[Red Bullets]

Alberta's first oil boom....
The first oil well in Turner Valley in 1914, the dingman discovery well, was so pure the oil could be put directly into the autos.

The first oil pipeline in Alberta was started in 1950. It runs from Alberta to Thunder Bay, Ontario. By 1952 the oil was running down the line.

Historically, back in the late 1700's Peter Pond made mention of seeing a native waterproofing his canoe with tar sand oozing out of the Athabasca river bank.

[Red Bullets]

A more recent tidbit... In 1993 Alberta Premier Ralph Klein privatized alberta liquor stores. In 1993 there were only 302 liquor stores in the province. Now there are more than 1400 liqour stores. Amazes me that Albertans bought $2.5 billion worth of alcohol in 2014-2015 — 6% more than the the year before. Wow. That's a lot of cash for a couple million adult albertans.

It was noted that when alcohol prohibition was started in 1916 domestic violence and crime rates went down considerably. A person could still buy alcohol at drugstores or make their own... for medicinal purposes.

I know there are small prairie towns that have few retail services in place and still they can have a few liquor outlets. Crazy....

[Red Bullets]

Back in 1872 a man named Donald Graham spent christmas in Alberta. He was camped at the bottom of a valley to avoid blowing blizzards on the flat lands above. The best benefit he mentioned was that all the firewood was dragged downhill. He was a wolf hunter along with a couple other guys.

The story gets interesting when he talks about his wolfing. His outfit would kill 20 to 30 buffalo, over a township or two of land, and open the carcasses up and lace each carcass with 1/4 ounce of strychnine. Some baits would get more than 100 wolves. wolf pelts were 2.50 to 3 dollars each stateside. He also mentioned that he was concerned that if any of the FN people or their dogs died from eating the strychnine bait he would be strung up.

He stated that one of his christmas dinner 'tidbits' was each man was given a chunk of wolf fat. He had gotten 3 large fat wolves with a strychnine laced buffalo bait. They each rendered down their wolf fat and had it as a dip for their drier buffalo meat. At first they turned their noses up to the renderings but at other times they rendered the fat and looked forward to the wolf lard.

In the 1870's one prime buffalo skin got a small keg of watered down 40 to 1 liquor from the whiskey posts in southern Alberta.

[Fish along]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

I am starting this thread with the intent of regularly adding little historical and interesting forgotten tidbits about Alberta. I hope the thread entertains and also hope it intrigues others to share and learn more about Alberta's interesting history.

If anyone would like to add a tidbit or two please share them with us. I am sure there are many interesting footnotes of our past waiting to be revealed.

Hope you enjoy.......

What a great thread, I'm reading a little bit every day ,so much great information, thanks for you're efforts.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by 250mark1

there is a book that the alberta road builders association put out
in 2005 called Roads to Resources a history of transportation in Alberta
its a pretty interesting read

not sure if you could find it in a library or not it was sent to all memebers
of the alberta roadbuilders and heavy construction association in 2005

www.arhca.ab.ca

https://www.biblio.com/book/roads-re...SABEgLI5fD_BwE

This looks like a great book. thanks for sharing. I love the pics and stories of the automobile excursions back in the day. It's not that long ago that lots of Alberta highways weren't paved. This pic was taken west of Banff by Yoho in the 20's or 30's on the No. 1 highway.

[Fish along]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

My father had a large collection of old Winchesters. Several from 1869, 1873, 1887 and quite a few 1895 models. There were 131 of them when he passed.
The collection was sold a few years later. My favorite was the Winchester lever action 10 gauge shotgun. The old buffalo calibers with hexagon barrels were sure nice too.

Holy ! a 10 guage lever action Winchester shotgun! I would like to see that one.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by Fish along

Holy ! a 10 guage lever action Winchester shotgun! I would like to see that one.

Looked like this one. 1886 model.

[Red Bullets]

In 1920 the Highwood river was a concern. Local opinion was to take out as many suckers, bull trout and grayling as possible... to improve the fishery for the cutthroat trout. The local F&G association was under operating on the myth that the highwood river was originally a cutthroat stream.

[Red Bullets]

This is interesting if you enjoy looking for historical items some might even consider treasures. I was reading an obscure article from an old publication and it said....

"The Hudson's Bay Company has a map showing where three cannons are buried near Rocky mountain house. They sent a man out west back in the late mid 1800's and four men looked and dug for 4 weeks but did not locate the cannons. The company decided the distances on the map were inaccurate. The cannons were never located. Even back in the early 1900's people were digging in the area of the fort looking for 100 year old kegs of rum that were supposedly buried in the area too. The location of the rum is not shown on the map."

The cannons would be a great find and today that would be 200 year old rum. Not sure where a person would find a copy of that map. Most likely in the Winnipeg HBC museum.

[Red Bullets]

The trains coming west in Alberta brought the tourist and the tourists of the turn of the century were interested in buying 'souvenir" animal heads. Hundreds of heads were also coming out of the east kootenay's in BC. The Canadian Pacific Railway even sent taxidermy displays to Europe to promote the abundance of wildlife in western Canada. It was so much so that by 1905 the government banned the sale of animal heads.

Because the government banned the sale of heads in 1905 by 1920 the animal numbers were rebounding. The parks were considered the best breeding grounds and in 1920 the superintendent, M. Rogers, of Jasper National Park stated that the surplus animals from the parks were moving to crown lands outside the park for hunters to harvest. He mentions that on the eastern slopes of the Rockies approximately 2000 bighorn sheep were taken by sport hunters.

M. Roger's examples of excess animals taken outside the parks: one woman and her 14 year old son came west and in the same day her and her son were able to shoot 4 bighorn sheep. Another party, Miss Foster, her brother, and a friend shot 10 bighorn sheep, 7 goats and a large caribou in a couple days. These two groups were train tourists.

[Red Bullets]

Who says a few people can't make a difference...

In 1904 seventy Edmonton residents urged the federal government to create Elk Island Park to preserve a small herd of resident elk. The residents were also reacting to the decline of wildlife in the area. In 1906 Fort Sask residents did the same creating the Cooking Lake Forest Reserve. These areas were an effort to create safe breeding grounds for our wildlife.

[parfleche]

Red My gran dad owned a 10 gauge Winchester , he traveled with the Metis in Manitoba long ago he died in the early 70,s and I have a beaver tag or two that were required to trap , I have to find it .Also have a big selection of Frank Conibears first traps , some were made in Edmonton when he trapped in the territories .

[35 whelen]

Wow I wonder if that's ever been scored

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

There used to be a time when a person could hunt in the national parks. In 1950 this caribou was shot in Jasper Park by a woman tourist. Impressive wall hanger. Over 50 points. Thought it was worth sharing the pic.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[35 whelen]

Wow

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by parfleche

Red My gran dad owned a 10 gauge Winchester , he traveled with the Metis in Manitoba long ago he died in the early 70,s and I have a beaver tag or two that were required to trap , I have to find it .Also have a big selection of Frank Conibears first traps , some were made in Edmonton when he trapped in the territories .

Your grandpa must have been a big man because when I fired Dad's 10 gauge it had quite the wallop. We only had 1 brass shell that had to be reloaded using black powder. The gun had a 30 inch barrel and seemed so long.

You mention having to find "it"... are you meaning your grandpa's 10 gauge or the trapping artifacts? Be sure to tell your kids the history of these items.

[Red Bullets]

In the coming weeks is when out rivers like to flood.

Thought I would post a couple of pics of north saskatchewan river.
In 1915 the north saskatchewan river blew it's banks and rose a foot an hour rising 42 feet. The two photos of the same view show how high the water rose in flood. First pic is 1915. Second is 1940. Before the Bighorn dam and Brazeau dam spring and summer floods were regular and in the winter the river ran at a trickle in the main channels.

And speaking of floods the 3rd photo shows a store in Slave Lake town in 1930. It is worthy of note because years earlier the lake had dried up quite a bit. Enough that the gov't of the day built a road across the dry lake bed. The road is now underwater. Not sure of the road's location.

The 4th pic is of a flood at lethbridge in 1908. Oldman river. worthy of note because now with the oldman dam and irrigation floods like this will probably never be seen again.

[Red Bullets]

Funny how today's movie makers disclose that no animals were hurt during the filming of their movies.

In 1923 a scene for a hollywood movie was filmed at Wainwright Alberta. The movie was " The Last Frontier" and the scene was a buffalo hunt. 24 buffalo were actually shot while filming the scene. I think the hunt itself was deemed the last actual buffalo hunt in Alberta.

Wish I could have found this movie online to watch.

[Bigwoodsman]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

In the coming weeks is when out rivers like to flood.

Thought I would post a couple of pics of north saskatchewan river.
In 1915 the north saskatchewan river blew it's banks and rose a foot an hour rising 42 feet. The two photos of the same view show how high the water rose in flood. First pic is 1915. Second is 1940. Before the Bighorn dam and Brazeau dam spring and summer floods were regular and in the winter the river ran at a trickle in the main channels.

And speaking of floods the 3rd photo shows a store in Slave Lake town in 1930. It is worthy of note because years earlier the lake had dried up quite a bit. Enough that the gov't of the day built a road across the dry lake bed. The road is now underwater. Not sure of the road's location.

The 4th pic is of a flood at lethbridge in 1908. Oldman river. worthy of note because now with the oldman dam and irrigation floods like this will probably never be seen again.

Those pictures of the High Level are insane! Mother Natures at her finest!

THIS THREAD SHOULD BE A STICKY NOTE AT THE TOP OF THE FORUM PAGE

[antlercarver]

[QUOTE=KegRiver;3305374]We have lost is the ability to understand animals communications.
Native peoples had this ability

When asked how he knew this he simply said, I heard the Fox talking.
It was soon apparent that he was right, the plague had started.
The year was 1952.

In the book Never cry Wolf the inuit said the wolves told them when the caribou were coming. I the song wolverton mountain the bears and birds told Clifton Clowder when someone wandered near. At home here the alarm calls of smaller birds tell us when a hawk comes in the yard. When something larger comes out n the lake shore the loons start hollering and I look out and often see moose or deer. There are many other examples we see if we pay attention.

[antlercarver]

NWTMN – Northwest Territory Métis Nation
Billy Loutit

bloutitICE DAM AT ATHABASCA LANDING
It was the spring of 1904 and Athabasca Landing was under attack. A massive ice dam had blocked the river and the snarling brown waters were assaulting the town. Great slabs of ice crashed through downtown, slashing buildings off at their foundations, smashing log houses and dashing outhouses off downstream. Folks retreated to high ground with their kids and livestock. Men in need of fortification were said to have paddled canoes in and out the windows of the Grand Union Hotel.

BILLY RAN FOR HELP
The Hudson’s Bay Company stood to lose thousands of dollars as the flood waters inundated their warehouses. The annual re-supply for Lake Athabasca, the Slave River Valley, Great Slave Lake, the entire Mackenzie Valley and the Arctic Coast were threatened with destruction. The Bay needed help; needed it fast.
To make sure the rescue call got through for sure, the company sent two messengers racing to Edmonton with the cry for help. Young Raynor Whiteley left on horseback from Stoney Creek, about 80 miles north of Edmonton. Billy Loutit, 26, left Athabasca on foot to make the 100 mile run to Edmonton.

BORN IN FORT CHIPEWYAN
Whiteley made to Edmonton at 11:00 in the morning after riding all night. After delivering his message he was just leading his lathered horse to a stable when Billy Loutit padded down the road. Billy had made it 100 miles in almost the same time the horse did 80 miles. He had run the whole way. Some say he did it in 16 hours and beat the horse by an hour. Others say it took a little longer.
Peter Loutit, Billy’s father, was imported from Scotland by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to arrive at Fort Chipewyan in 1865. William Cornwallis Loutit (Billy) was born in Fort Chip. in 1877. He started working on the boats for the HBC in 1894 at the age of 17 and continued as a riverman until 1947, including stints on the S. S. Athabasca and the Northland Echo. Billy married Agatha Ladouceur, daughter of David and Marie Rose Ladouceur, in 1913.

A RENOWNED TRAVELER
The family, they eventually had 11 children, would often move from Athabasca (the word “Landing” was dropped in 1905) downstream 90 miles to Poplar Point for the winter months where Billy ran a HBC trading post cut cord wood for the steamboats. He spoke Cree and Chipewyan as well as English.
Billy was a renowned traveler. Agnes Deans Cameron (The New North, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1910) wrote: “Billy, carrying a special dispatch of the Mounted Police, ran with a hand-sled from Chipewyan to Fort Smith and back in three days – a distance of 200 miles at least.”

RACES HONOUR BILLY’S MEMORY
Ernest Thompson Seton (The Arctic Prairies, Harper & Row, New York, 1911) remembered Billy as “a first class cook, a steady, cheerful worker, and a capable guide.” Seaton named a lake (Loutit Lake, east of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake) after Billy.
Billy Loutit is honoured twice a year in the town of Athabasca. The present day summer and winter dispatches bear Billy’s name in honour of his memory; the man and his athletic abilities. The Billy Loutit Winter Despatch is a skiing and snowshoeing biathlon, while the summer Billy Loutit Summer Despatch is a swimming, running and cycling triathlon.

THE WORD GOT OUT
When the organizers of the events named them after Billy, they had no idea who or where Loutit descendents might be. Bill Loutitt of Fort McMurray was invited to Athabasca’s Winterfest in 2003 and discovered the festival featured an event named after his grandfather.
Carol Yayechnick was surfing the net and found the picture of her grandfather the race organizers had posted.
By the summer of 2004 the word was out. The Summer Despatch turned into a veritable family reunion as 32 family members and relatives (Loutits, Demers, Romanchuks and Gallaghers) gathered in Athabasca. The happy throng included Ellen Bishop, born in 1922 and Sarah Parke, born in 1926; the last surviving (Billy and Agatha) Loutit children.

SOME FAMILY COMPETES
The family doesn’t just watch the events. Some attend to compete. Great-granddaughter Shannon Loutitt, in her first ever triathlon, placed third in the individual sprint race in 2004. Jason Loutitt, great-grandson, entered the 2004 biathlon, a grueling 40 km. course over tough country. Jason is a national level cross-country runner. The winner in 2003 had completed the course in a little over four hours. Jason did it in three hours and 17 minutes. But he had help.

ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE BILLY SMILE
In Jason’s words: “There is a place within us that involves our history, destiny and our potential and I must thank my great-grandfather for showing me the way. For he meets me at the top of every mountain and at every finish line, and it’s not about how I do but what I learn about myself and how I overcome the limits that I set on myself. I know in my heart that’s all it takes to make him smile.”
With thanks to Grassroots News, Manitoba Metis Federation; Frances K. Jean, FOCUS on Fort McMurray; Erin Ottosen, Legacy.

[Red Bullets]

Thanks for the post Antlercarver.

[Red Bullets]

Looking up some interesting fishing history I thought I would share these tidbits I found. I will put them all in one post.

In 1964 Muir lake was stocked with brook trout. didn't take. They didn't survive one year.
~~~

As late as 1968 the fishing regs were pretty relaxed. It was legal to:
- licenses go up from 2 dollars to 3.
- fisherman can use 3 lines.
- Rivers were open to ice fishing. Peace, Athabasca, North Sask., Red Deer and the Bow.
- only baitfish allowed are non-alberta fish family. eg. smelt or herring.
- The limits on yellow perch were removed.Keep all you want.
- whitefish limits go from 8 to 10
- lake trout limits are reduced to 3. Swan, Bearspaw, Ghost river, Spray lakes, Grist and Rock.
~~~

In 1969 Kinky lake near Hinton was opened to recreational netting with 25 yards of any size gill nets from March 17 to 29.
all species of fish were allowed to be taken. Rainbows & brookies.
~~~

1916 It was noted that fifteen pound trout are caught with pleasing frequency in the upper peace river area. doesn't mention which type of trout. I'm guessing bull trout.
~~~

The 1907 fishing regs stated that in the red deer river and the north saskatchewan river no one shall fish for or catch any trout, grayling or rocky mountain whites from September 1 to April 30th. * Interesting there was mention of grayling.
~~~

1907 Interesting note was that No one shall in one day catch and retain more than 25 cutthroats, rainbows or Rocky mountain whites. A person could keep 10 lake trout per day.
~~~

1910 lesser slave lake and lac la biche lake summer fishing season was permitted from July 15 to sept 13.
~~~

1916 lesser slave lake:
The whitefish average 2 to 4 lbs.. And the lake had a specimens of salmon trout average 18 to 40 lbs. Lots of pike, perch and walleye. So much so the fishermen of the day stated the fish are dying from disease and overcrowding.

[bat119]

Swift Runner

During the winter, a Windigo ate Swift Runner’s family. Swift Runner was a Cree hunter and trapper from the country north of Fort Edmonton. He was a big man, over six feet tall, and well liked. He was mild and trustworthy, a considerate husband, and very fond of his children (a little too fond of his children, as events proved). All of these traits endeared him to his people and to the traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

But this was not enough to allay suspicion when he returned from his winter camp in the spring of 1879 without his wife and family. When he could not give a satisfactory account of their whereabouts, his in-laws became worried. They decided to tell the North West Mounted Police, who had then been in the West for just five years.

Inspector Sévère Gagnon was given the task of investigating Swift Runner’s behavior. He and a small party of policemen accordingly trekked out to the trapper’s camp.

Swift Runner obligingly showed the Mounted Policemen a small grave near his camp. He explained that one of his boys had died and was buried there. Gagnon and his detachment opened the grave and found the bones undisturbed.

That, however, did not explain the human bones scattered around the encampment. Gagnon produced a skull, which Swift Runner willingly told him was that of his wife. Without much prodding, Swift Runner revealed what had happened to the rest of his family.

At first, Swift Runner became haunted by dreams. A Windigo spirit called on him to consume the people around him. The spirit crept through his mind, gradually taking control. Finally he was Windigo, and Swift Runner no longer. Then the Windigo killed and ate Swift Runner’s wife.

This accomplished, the Windigo forced one of Swift Runner’s boys to kill and butcher his younger brother. While enjoying this grisly repast, the spirit hung Swift Runner’s infant by the neck from a lodge pole and tugged at the baby’s dangling feet. It was later shown that he had also done away with Swift Runner’s brother—and his mother-in-law, though he acknowledged that she had been “a bit tough.”

The revolted Mounted Police party hauled Swift Runner and the mutilated evidence back to Fort Saskatchewan. The trial began on August 8, 1879. The judge and jury did not view the Windigo idea in the same light as the Cree. They saw Swift Runner as a murderer, and the trapper made no attempt to hide his guilt. Stipendiary Magistrate Richardson quickly sentenced him to be hanged.

The sentence presented a problem: the police had never before conducted an execution. Although the Hudson’s Bay Company had once hanged an employee for murder, this was, for all intents and purposes, the first formal execution in western Canada. Staff Sergeant Fred Bagley, a force bugler, was put in charge of the arrangements.

A gallows was erected within the fort enclosure at Fort Saskatchewan, and an old army pensioner named Rogers was made hangman. On the appointed morning, a bitterly cold December 20, Swift Runner was led to the scaffold.

Standing over the trap, the unrepentant cannibal was given the opportunity to address the large crowd that had gathered. He openly acknowledged his guilt, and thanked his jailers for their kindness—then berated his guard for making him wait in the cold!

Nevertheless, the Mounted Police must have accomplished their first execution well enough. A more experienced spectator, a California “forty-niner” named Jim Reade, commented, “That’s the purtiest hangin’ I ever seen, and it’s the twenty-ninth!”

Nowadays we view as psychosis what the Cree thought to be the work of a Windigo spirit. At one time, in the belt of parkland that borders the northern plains, it was far from being a rare phenomenon. Usually the symptoms were the same as those displayed by Swift Runner. And in one way or another, most of the afflicted Windigos met similar, violent death.

http://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/runner-swift.htm

[Red Bullets]

The good old Windigo... I suspect cannibalism went on more than mentioned in the history books. Long winters with deep snows and starvation would create ideal conditions. Thanks for sharing the story of Swift Runner Bat119.

[Red Bullets]

The fur market in Montreal was rather dull back in 1882.

Mink - 75 cents to $1.
Martin - $1 to $1.15
Beaver - $2.25 to $2.75
Bear - $9 to $12
Muskrat - small- 12cents to 15cents. large- 15cents to 18cents
Lynx - $2 to $2.50
Skunk - 50cents to 80cents
Fisher - $5 to $7
Otter - $6 to $8

In 1884 one fur buyer from St Paul(I think Minnesota) was paying 10 to 15 cents per house cat pelt.

[Red Bullets]

Amazing how industrious some farmers were back in the 1880's. The blood sweat and tears that was spent on the lands we walk on today. Either the farmer had lots of sons to help or had to hire men. This is one reason farm families had lots of kids.

A note on June of 1882. Edmonton area.
One farmer, W.Cust aged 60, finished seeding on May 31. The year before he didn't finish seeding until June 21. His farm was seeded.. 280 acres of grain crops (145 acres wheat,123 acres barley,12 acres oats) and 5 acres of root crops. Four horse teams and four oxen teams did the field work. Four teams of horses plowed 140 acres of land in 14 days. Mr. Cust himself hand broadcast 25 bushels of grain a day... with one hand for 9 consecutive days.

Amazing that from then to now... 14 days to plow 140 acres then. Same field with today's equipment.. one full day.