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Ice age in Edmonton
Even with the arrival of somewhat unpredictable electricity and the burgeoning popularity of refrigeration in the 1920s, many citizens and businesses clung fiercely to their insulated cubicle iceboxes. “Ice is the Safe Form of Home Refrigeration,” declared an Arctic Ice Company advertisement in the June 30th, 1927 edition of the Edmonton Journal. “Ice is the simple, natural way to secure the proper low temperatures of your refrigerator. Ice costs less than any refrigerating method and never goes out of order.”
The “ice age” in Edmonton began at the turn of the century with the establishment of the Edmonton Ice Company and the City Ice Company, followed by the Arctic Ice Company and the Twin City Ice Company, in 1912. They were headquartered on the Ross Flats (today’s Rossdale) on 100 Street between 97 and 98 Avenues, with storehouses for ice and stables for horses and delivery wagons.
A 1912 article extolling the virtues of the new Arctic Ice Company said: The ice taken from the North Saskatchewan was “as pure as nature can make it. Coming as it does from the snow-fed stream of the surrounding country, filtered through the immense gravel beds along the river, and fed from thousands of pure springs, the water is as limpid and as translucent as a diamond.”
Learn more and see photos of harvesting ice from the frozen North Saskatchewan River at
https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2021/02/03/the-ice-age-in-edmonton/?
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Metis and the river valley
Métis history in Alberta originated with the fur trade when French and Scottish fur traders married Indigenous women. From 1670 to 1821 the Métis populations grew regionally, typically around fur-trading posts. After a few generations, descendants of these marriages formed a distinct culture.
Fort Edmonton spawned a large Métis population that was involved in an annual buffalo hunt for many years. These Métis helped to establish the nearby settlements of Lac Ste. Anne and St. Albert. The fur-trade was an economic boom for the Métis as it opened the fur and buffalo meat trades to private Métis traders, however it also exposed them to a flood of European and Canadian colonists seeking to profit and disenfranchise the Metis from their lands.
Métis cultures and communities survived with farming, ranching, fishing, and industry replacing their traditional economy of fur-trading as the main economic activity, though trapping and hunting have remained important in the Rocky Mountain and Boreal Forest regions.
As the fur trade slowed, Métis people developed farms on river lots close to Fort Edmonton. Metis was chosen as the new name of Ward 6 because of the history of the Metis in this region, as well as the river lot system historically used in this area of Edmonton. Learn more at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_in_Alberta
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