First, I want to say that I hope all are keeping safe and feeling well. This definitely is an historic time in that the situation is world wide. 

It is very moving to read and hear of the many ways people are reaching out to one another. Please take care and stay safe.

As you know I often rely on the Bill Smiley Archives for background details and confirmations re: the columns I write.  I thank them for their most generous support. Recently, however, I spoke of how privately organized scrapbooks may also be a most interesting source of archival material. Well, just a short while ago one such scrapbook collection was brought to my attention. It proved to be full of items of real interest, but the most captivating feature of that set of scrapbooks is that they were put together as a collection of community events, not just personal anecdotes. To me that pointed to what history really is – the collection of facts and stories that individuals thought were of merit and worthy of continued attention.

History, then, will never be complete – there are always new sources of facts coming to life.

Harold Guy contacted me and said that due to my interest in local history, I might have an interest in the scrapbooks a friend of his, Arnold Monsebroten, had assembled. Well, I did, but rather than using them to create a story, I decided to simply pass on a few of the entries to you, dear readers.

So here they are. I have put them in chronological order by date of the occurrences of the events. I have also taken the liberty, in a few cases, to add some footnotes: 

1862: First farm started in Prince Albert area by James Isbister. 

1879: Lucy May Baker a Presbyterian missionary, was Prince Albert’s first school teacher.

1891: Albert Pascal named the Bishop of the Missionary Diocese headquartered in Prince Albert.

June 3, 1905: There was a free fight on the steps of the Land Office on the part of a crowd waiting to rush for land available in Township 39, Range 8. Men were clubbed and ridden down by mounted local police.

1905: Gold Dredge machine in operation on North Saskatchewan a few miles west of Prince Albert.

1909: First train came to Prince Albert. (This event was  reported as occurring on Sept. 2 by one article – Sept. 4 by another article, and Oct. 22, by a third article.) ‘Alternate Facts’ emerged long ago – eh!

1909: Railway Bridge opens in Prince Albert with 12 foot wide car lanes on each side.

1913: Samuel McLeod constructs Keyhole Castle.

1914: F.C. Maddison becomes Bandmaster of Prince Albert’s ‘White Coal City Brass and Reed Band.’ (The White Coal moniker is tied to the LaColle Falls Dam project.)

1918: Burns meat packing plant opens. (The plant, which later grew much larger, closed in 1978)

1925: L.L. Cowie delivered milk in Prince Albert by team and open wagon. (I, Morley, assisted in delivering milk in the same fashion in Regina in the 1950’s.)

1937: Ella Muzzy – first woman ever elected to Prince Albert’s City Council.

December, 1944: Zombie Parade. Soldiers pictured on parade in Prince Albert dressed all in white as part of training exercise for combat in winter.

1948: Jack Cennon’s ‘Wake Up – Shake Up Show’ first airs.

1953: Prince Albert Riverside Royals capture the Saskatchewan Amatuer Softball Association Senior Men’s Championship. 

1959: Princess Margaret visits Prince Albert.

(No date given) Betty Gibb is first female newspaper carrier.

1960: Prince Albert Traffic Bridge opens. (In 1967 the bridge was renamed John G. Diefenbaker Bridge.)

1967: Leroy Coates – Prince Albert Wheelchair Athlete wins silver medal in shot put at Pan American Wheelchair Games in Winnipeg.

1974: ‘BONANZA’ goes off the air.

1975: Marion Sherman becomes Prince Albert’s first female mayor.

(There were so many other events stored in Arnold’s Scrapbooks that room does not allow for more to be highlighted.)

But thank you Arnold for your fascinating personal perspective of our local history. Job well done.