HIStory & HERitage: Halloween Edition!

                             HIStory & HERitage

In honour of Halloween, this edition of HIStory & HERitage will highlight a scary tale from Fort McMurray's past!

The year was 1914 and Fort McMurray was a small village with a population of a little over 300 people. 

In such a close-knit community, people believed their families were safe from the crime and dangers of the "big city". 

But they were wrong. 

On the morning of October 28, 1914, a trapper named Paul Miller burst into the Fort McMurray RCMP detachment. He was disheveled and panicking, but alive. He frantically explained that he had just been attacked by a man, bushman Otto Bushner, wielding an axe. 

Paul had been outside of his cabin gathering wood in an area that is now referred to as "Peden's Point", on the east side of the Clearwater River, across from MacDonald Island when the assault took place. Somehow, Paul was able to defend himself and escape. His first thought was to get help and alert authorities, so he ran to tell the police, leaving his two house guests unaware of the madman in their midst.   

After hearing Paul's account,  the police immediately raced to the scene of the crime.

But they were too late. Paul's cabin had been set on fire and his two guests, Michael Reis and H.J McColley, had perished in the flames. 

The police searched the area, but the axeman was no where to be found.  Enlisting the assistance of local Aboriginals, the police began a manhunt. 

Several days and kilometres later, Otto was finally located north of Lac La Biche. When cornered by police,  Otto shot himself before he could be arrested. But letters found on his person, addressed to his wife, confessed to his crimes. 

The news of the murders shocked the residents of Fort McMurray and no one dared to live on Peden's Point for almost 40 years. 

For those brave souls looking to explore a haunted house, it is said that the remains of Paul Miller's cabin still exist at Peden's Point. 

HIStory & HERitage: Walter & Gladys Hill

                             HIStory & HERitage


The Fort McMurray Public School District recently celebrated the opening of its first new elementary school in 26 years when, on September 2, 2014, Walter and Gladys Hill Public School (WGHPS) officially welcomed students through its doors. 

Like many streets, sites and public structures in the region, this new school was named in honour of prominent members of the community who made a significant contribution to the area.

Which brings us to the question: who were Walter and Gladys Hill?

Walter Herbert Hill was born on March 20, 1900 in Herefordshire, England. His family immigrated to Edmonton in 1913, a year before the start of the First World War. As the war continued to rage on, Walter lied about his age and enlisted in the army, just shy of his 17th birthday. While stationed in England for training, Walter rekindled his friendship with a young woman named Gladys, whom he had known as a child.  

Following the end of the war, Walter studied at the University of Alberta, becoming one of the first graduates of its pharmacy program. In 1922, Walter was preparing to move to California to open a drug store of his own, when he heard of a temporary position in Fort McMurray. Angus Sutherland, Fort McMurray’s first pharmacist, was ill with arthritis and needed help running his pharmacy, Sutherland’s Drugs. 

Walter traveled north with the intention of only staying a few months. However, Sutherland offered Walter the opportunity to buy the pharmacy, or else he would have to shut it down. Since he didn’t have the funds to buy the store outright, the two men agreed to a partnership, sealing the contract the old fashioned way- with a handshake. 

With his career looking bright, Walter wrote a letter to Gladys’ father asking permission to marry his daughter. He agreed, and in 1923 Gladys embarked on the long journey to Edmonton, where she and Walter were married. Together they traveled to Fort McMurray by train, and then by boat. The rough and wild Fort McMurray was a stark contrast to the comfortable life Gladys had enjoyed in England, but she quickly adapted to her new surroundings with determination and perseverance. With her arrival, she became the 11th white woman to the area.

Together, Walter and Gladys had two sons: Dave and Kenneth. For a while, the young family lived in an apartment above the pharmacy. In 1934, however, a fire destroyed many businesses along Franklin Ave, including Sutherlands Drugs. The Hills were able to escape unscathed and Gladys is credited with running back into the burning building to save important ledgers, prescription files, money and books. Amazingly, Sutherlands Drugs was rebuilt within 30 days! Afterwards, the Hills moved into their own house on  Manning Ave, which has since relocated to Heritage Park. 

Following the death of Sutherland in 1951, Walter became the sole owner of the pharmacy. He officially changed the name to Hill Drugs once his son Kenneth joined the family business in the 1970s.  

In addition to working at the pharmacy, the Hill’s were known for their community involvement and were honoured by several organizations with lifetime memberships. 

Gladys was the first woman to be elected as a Town Councilor, a position she held for 5 years. She was also involved in a number of local organizations, including the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE), the Girl Guide Troop as well as many local sport teams. Gladys continued to assist her husband at the pharmacy until she finally retired at age 79. She passed away six years later on December 5, 1985.

Walter was a member of the Board of Trade (later named the Chamber of Commerce) as well as . He received various awards in his recognition for his efforts in the community. He continued working at the pharmacy well into his golden years.  He passed away on October 27, 1986 at age 86. 

Hills Drugs closed its doors two years later on October 8, 1988. However, the Hill family pharmacy tradition continues with Walter's grandson, Dave Hill, who now owns and operates Dave Hill Pharmacy in Thickwood. 

HIStory & HERitage: Tom Morimoto

                              HIStory & HERitage

Did you know that May is Asian Heritage Month? To celebrate the history and the contributions of Asian Canadians,  I want to highlight Tom Morimoto, a second generation Japanese Canadian who grew up in Fort McMurray during the Great Depression.

Tom's father, Tommy Morimoto, arrived in Canada in 1906. He was originally from Japan but had been working in Hawaii as a labourer.  As with the majority of Japanese immigrants to Canada at the time, he was a single, young man. Fortunately for Tommy, he just made the cut as the following year a limit was put on the number of Japanese men that could enter the country. Afterwards, most Japanese immigration  consisted of wives joining their husbands or young unmarried women betrothed to men in Canada. 

Tom’s mother, Mitome, belonged to this second category of women. She arrived in Canada in 1917 as a "picture bride". This practice was common among Japanese and Korean immigrants living in Canada or the U.S at the time, and it consisted of a man selecting a bride from their native countries through a matchmaker, who paired the bride and groom based on photographs of the two and their families' recommendations.

Following their marriage, Tommy and Mitome settled in Edmonton, where they operated a rooming house and a barbershop beside the Royal George Hotel. While their business was successful, the cost of rent was too expensive. Persuaded by the promise of Fort McMurray as the new, booming City of the North, they relocated to Fort McMurray and leased 10 acres of land near the current Grant McEwan bridge from the Hudson's Bay Company. They used this land to garden and plant vegetables, which they shipped further north on a steamboat. Near the end of the farming season, the Morimoto's would host a corn roast for the entire community. 

The Morimoto’s had 7 sons. Sadly, in 1938, Mitome and an infant son both passed away, leaving Tommy the sole caretaker and provider for his young family. 

Tom Morimoto was the oldest son in the family. As a teenager during the Depression, Tom worked odd jobs around town- farming, trapping and trading goods for fur. He also worked at the Canadian Airways Radio Station and learned Morse code. 

When the Second World War began in 1939, Tom applied to enlist in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. Despite Tom’s short stature and light weight, which were below the official standard, Tom was accepted because of his extensive skills and experience working with radios.  

As part of the Corps of Signals, Tom has the distinction of being the only Japanese Canadian on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. 

Following the war, Tom attended the University of Alberta and graduated as a chemical engineer. He spent many years travelling the world and working in the oil industry, both in Alberta and Dubai. Now retired, Tom spends his time between living in Kelowna and Arizona. If you are interested in learning more about Tom’s amazing life, you can read his memoir “Breaking Trail”, which is available for purchase at Heritage Park. 

So the next time you're by the Snye, and your walking or driving along "Morimoto Drive", take a moment to recognize Tom's personal achievements as well as his family's place in our local and national history. 

If you want to learn more about Asian Heritage Month, click here 

HIStory & HERitage: Angus Sutherland

                               HIStory & HERitage

Unlike Thickwood or Timberlea, where many of the streets are named according to a specific theme, most of the streets in the downtown area of Fort McMurray are named after people who are significant to the history of the region. 

Have you ever wondered who was the inspiration for Manning Ave or Morimoto Drive? What about Sutherland Street, the side street off of Franklin Ave where the Podollan Inn & Rez is located? Have you ever wondered who Sutherland was?

Angus Sutherland was the first druggist in Fort McMurray. He was born in Ontario in the 1890s, but attained his education in Manitoba. Following graduation, Angus worked for the Northern Transportation Company’s water transportation division in Athabasca Landing. You can see Angus Sutherland in the 1916 Census of Alberta here where he is listed as working as a purser, or the person responsible for handling money, on a steam boat.

In the winter of 1918, Angus was sent to Fort McMurray for business. At this time, soldiers were beginning to return home from the battlefields of the First World War.  These men unknowingly brought with them the Spanish Flu, a deadly virus that became a global pandemic.  When this flu made its way to Fort McMurray, Angus immediately began to stockpile medical supplies, even treating people at no cost if they could not afford to pay his fees.  

Realizing that the growing community needed a pharmacy, Angus opened a small drug store inside the Franklin Hotel. This business venture was so successful that it needed a larger space. In 1922, Angus opened a new pharmacy, Sutherland Drugs, in a two storey frame building. The pharmacy served as both a drug store as well as a library, the first in Fort McMurray.  Membership to the library cost one dollar and the borrowing fee for each book was twenty-five cents.

Suffering from ill health, Angus asked Walter Hill, a recent graduate, to help with the pharmacy business. In 1922 Walter arrived in Fort McMurray and became Angus’ partner. However, in 1934 a major fire destroyed most of the businesses along the west side of Franklin Avenue, including Sutherland Drugs. Amazingly, the store was rebuilt within 30 days and even refitted with wiring for electricity. 

In this photo, Angus Sutherland is sitting on the left and Walter Hill is seated on the right. Photo courtesy of the Fort McMurray Historical Society.

Four years later, in 1938, Angus opened two Sutherland Drugs: one in Waterways along Railway Avenue and another in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. This expansion earned Angus the title the "Pharmacist of the North”. 

After serving the community for over 20 years, Angus died in Fort McMurray on May 31, 1951. With his death, Walter Hill became the sole owner of the business and he renamed the Fort McMurray store Hill Drugs.  Walter Hill died in 1986 and his pharmacy continued to operate until 1988. The Hill family tradition of pharmacy service continues to this day with Dave Hill Pharmacy in Thickwood (Dave is Walter’s grandson).  

Following its closure, the Sutherland Drugs/Hill Drugs building was donated to Heritage Park. It currently houses the museum’s main displays about the fur trade, river transportation, the railway and of course, the pharmacy itself. 

HIStory & HERitage: Willow Lake Church in Anzac

HIStory & HERitage

While it may not look like it now, the Willow Lake Church in Anzac was once a beautiful building, bursting at the seams with a crowd of people.  For over 50 years, the Church was the centre of the community. It was where residents met to discuss projects and concerns, where young couples exchanged martial vows, where children were baptized, and where friends and family gathered to say goodbye to their dearly departed.

Looking at the dilapidated structure, it’s difficult to imagine that this little church was part of an internationally historic event: the Cold War.  

As a defensive measure during the Cold War, Canada constructed the Mid-Canada Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line in the mid-1950s. This was a line of radar stations, stretching across the country along the 55^th parallel. Its purpose was to detect incoming Soviet aircraft attacks on North America.

One of these stations, and the only one of its kind in Alberta, was located at Stoney Mountain, near Anzac. It was in operation by 1957. However, due to advancements in jet aircraft,  the Mid-Canada DEW Line became obsolete shortly after it was established.  In 1964, the Stoney Mountain station was closed and its buildings were either destroyed or moved.

The Willow Lake Church (which was the Protestant church at Stoney Mountain) was moved to Anzac around 1962. Anzac was chosen because the community had recently lost their church to a fire.

 Following the relocation, the building was slightly modified. A larger entrance was added to the front and a steeple was attached to the roof. The Mennonite Mission used the building as a school from 1962 until 1966. 

The Mennonites then donated the building to the community as a non-denominational church. Over time, the church was also used as as a meeting place for groups and organizations until a larger church was built in Anzac about 10 years ago.