A History of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to 1914
Date
1965-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This history had its origin in the winter of 1962,
when the City of Prince Albert approached Dr. Hilda Neatby,
Head of the History Department at the University of Saskatchewan.
The work was undertaken in the fall of 1962 as a city
centennial project and a thesis in history. The city of
Prince Albert provided a scholarship. The writer was also
the recipient of a scholarship given by the University of
Saskatchewan to encourage advanced study in the humanities
and social sciences.
For a person who had previously paid but one short
visit to Prince Albert, the project was a journey into the
unknown. Nevertheless, the history of that city was soon
found to hold a peculiar fascination. As many visitors to
Prince Albert have suspected, the story is essentially a
tragedy. It was not mere fancy that led one citizen to
predict, in 1883, that Prince Albert might outstrip even
Winnipeg in size. The belief in a grand future was perhaps
the most persistent theme in the early history of Prince
Albert. It was, indeed, a town that seemed to possess every
natural advantage, and a vigorous, intelligent people
capable of turning nature's gifts into the ingredients of
civic greatness. Instead, Prince Albert's day of glory was
brief. The diversion of the Canadian Pacific Railway to
the southern Prairies, and the quick relapse into the worldwide
depression which characterized the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, turned a bustling centre of civilization
into an economic and cultural backwater. The catastrophe
of 1883 was not, unfortunately, the last which Prince
Albert had to endure. Near the turn of the century began
the development which, in barely a decade, converted the
half-empty West into a vast agricultural empire. Here, too,
because of its position on the fringe of the wheat belt,
Prince Albert fared poorly in relation to other towns. In
these years, also, the uncertainty of a future based upon
the resources of the Northland first became evident.
In 1911, driven by a growing awareness of its inferior
position, the city embarked on a project which promised to
lead it towards a long-sought greatness. The building of
a power dam at La Colle Falls is, in itself, a subject of
rare interest. It ended, through causes not wholly within
the capacity of the citizens to foresee, in one of the
greatest financial disasters ever to befall a Western city.
The three hectic years from 1910 to 1913 were also a time
in which every city of the West strove for urban distinction,
if not opulence. In this field, Prince Albert did not fail
to keep pace. The city spent extravagantly on services
which, even fifty years later, have not all been put to use.
The thesis ends on a note of regret and foreboding,
as Prince Albert began the long descent towards financial
collapse. The city's struggle to bear the massive burden of
debt thus incurred forms a principal theme in the second
portion of the history.
Interwoven with the theme of Prince Albert's search
for greatness is the history of the civic government. Here
is described the long evolution from the simple, though
effective, institutions of the frontier town to the
sophisticated administration of 1913. It is rendered,
hopefully, with some appreciation of the difficulties faced
by those persons whose task it is to govern a community.
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Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Program
History