Blackfalds & Area Historical Society

Linking Past & Present

 

Iron Ridge Secondary Campus Mural


Early Exploration

Peter Erasmus – Born in 1833 in the Red River settlement, Peter was the child of a Danish settler and a Métis mother. He later studied for the Anglican ministry, served as an assistant for Reverend Thomas Woolsey of the Methodist Church, joined with him in 1856 and participated in helping establish missions at Fort Edmonton. Peter became an effective interpreter, hunter, guide, trader and teacher. Some of his excursions included being hired as an outfitter and guide by Dr. James Hector of the Palliser Expedition in 1858, working for Henry B. Steinhauer at the Smoky Lake Mission, hired as a guide and interpreter for the Reverend George M. McDougall from the Victoria Mission and acted as an interpreter during the negotiations of Treaty No. 6. Peter Erasmus shared his life history with Henry Thompson, a local Métis author. Erasmus's memoir was published by the Glenbow-Alberta Institute of Calgary in 1976 with a reprint done in 1999, called "Buffalo Days and Nights". 1 (Quoting from page 75):

"The traveling fame credited to most white men ignored the fact that they were usually warmly wrapped in Buffalo robes with a blazing fire ready and a carpet of spruce boughs laid for them to step on before they left the cozy warmth of the toboggan. Many of the early famous travelers would have been hopelessly lost, starved, or frozen to death without the guidance and advice of the [First Nations and Métis]. Historians fail to note these factors in crediting their heroes and glorifying their characters in their stories. The [First Nations and Métis] were paid servants and thus not entitled to any praise for their deeds, which were quite frequently at the risk of their lives."

Anthony Henday – Born in England, Anthony Henday came to Canada and started working for the Hudson Bay Company as a laborer. In 1754, he was sent by the Hudson's Bay Company to scout out the fur trade possibilities in the west. Guided by a group of Cree, he met with Indigenous groups, hunted and camped for two months, crossing the Red Deer and Blindman Rivers, and travelling west to points near Rocky Mountain House, getting his first view of the Rocky Mountains. Henday was the first documented European to view the Rocky Mountains and explore the area of Central Alberta.

In October of 1754 he stopped at a large encampment of Blackfoot, numbering 322 teepees, just west of Pine Lake, where he encouraged the fur trade. He returned with his report to York Factory, where the HBC had one of their first trading posts on the southwest shore of the Hudson's Bay in Manitoba.


David Thompson – Born in London, England, David Thompson started as an apprentice in 1784 with the Hudson's Bay Company, at age 14 years. Thompson learned astronomy and mathematics and spent so much time examining the sun and stars that he lost his sight in one eye. He became an important surveyor and cartographer who mapped large parts of Canada for trading companies, travelling over 90,000 kilometers and mapping 4.9 million square kilometers of land. The period between 1792 to 1812 was his most productive time in western Canada and the northwestern United States.

With Indigenous guides, he travelled through the central Alberta area many times, and for a time, lived near the Hudson's Bay fort at Rocky Mountain House. He married a Métis woman, Charlotte Small, and they had 13 children. He later joined the rival North West Trading company, exploring and mapping the west. He retired to Montreal in 1812 with his large family.


Robert T. Rundle, a Wesleyan minister from England, came west in 1840, and worked out of the Hudson's Bay post at Fort Edmonton as a Methodist Missionary and school teacher. He also travelled to the Beaver Lake, Rocky Mountain House and Banff areas. He established the Rundle Mission at Pigeon Lake in 1847, where he taught European agriculture, ministered to the local bands and translated hymns and scripture into Cree with the assistance of Indigenous guides and interpreters. In particular, William Roland and Benjamin Sinclair, both Métis, supported him in his Cree translation work.

Unfortunately, he suffered a bad fall from his horse, and returned to England in 1848 to seek medical attention.


Paul Kane was an Irish born Canadian artist and writer who became famous for his paintings of First Nations, Métis and buffalo. He crossed the Blindman River in 1848, on his way to visiting the Rocky Mountain House fort. He saw great herds of buffalo along the way, as far as the eye could see. He travelled extensively in Canada and the NW United States.


Father Albert Lacombe was a Quebec born Roman Catholic missionary who came to the Edmonton area in 1852. He cared for all peoples and continually expanded his mission and ties with Indigenous Nations in Central Alberta, often caring for them during smallpox and other outbreaks, as well as helping to establish peace between them.


The Palliser Expedition – In England, John Palliser had submitted a plan to the Royal Geographical Society for an expedition to travel from the Red River Colony in what is now Manitoba, Canada, to the Rocky Mountains and further west, along the American boundary. In 1857, Captain John Palliser, an Irishman, along with Scottish geologist Dr James Hector, British astronomer Thomas Blackiston, and French botanist Eugene Bourgeau, spent 3 years exploring and collecting data in Alberta, and later through British Columbia to the Pacific Coast. Some of the various trips were in the Red Deer area, and from journals, we know Captain Palliser met a large group of Blackfoot west of Pine Lake, where he counted about 320 teepees.

In 1858, Dr. Hector set out on a short journey going south from Edmonton without Palliser. He followed the Wolf Trail south of Ponoka, through the Lacombe area and on to where the Blindman River runs into the Red Deer River, just SE of Blackfalds, (now called Burbank). The group camped there before heading west to the Rocky Mountain House Hudson's Bay Fort. The Palliser Journal frequently mentions the Blindman River and Red Deer River in their travels. They had Métis guides, notably the remarkable Peter Erasmus, who were integral to their survival. They hunted buffalo when they encountered them along the way. They spent time at Fort Edmonton between excursions.


George and John McDougall - George McDougall (1820 - 1876) was a Methodist missionary from Ontario who started a mission at Victoria Settlement NE of Edmonton. Peter Erasmus was his Métis guide and interpreter, and Cree Chief Maskepetoon was a friend to them. On one of his many trips south in 1861, with his son John (1842 – 1917) he tried crossing the Red Deer River, just below Burbank, at high flood time and his horse refused to cross. He used a hide to float across, drifting a mile down-stream before reaching the other side. John tried panning for gold in the canyon downstream from Red Deer, east of the town, and around Burbank, while his father was recuperating from a shotgun wound.

John McDougall started as an assistant to Rev. Thomas Woolsey, and John soon became very experienced in travelling the rough country of what would become Alberta. He saw many buffalo, and learned to participate in the big hunts, the main source of food at the time.

Many Cree and Blackfoot camped around the Victoria Mission and were ministered to by the McDougall's through charitable and spiritual efforts. In 1865 the McDougall's and Reverend Woolsey headed to another Mission near Pigeon Lake, started by Robert Rundle. While at Victoria, John met and married his first wife, Abigail Steinhauer, daughter of Ojibwa Missionary Henry Bird Steinhauer and his Saulteaux wife Jesse Joyful. Tragically Abigail Steinhauer McDougall passed away during the smallpox epidemic of 1870-71, an outbreak that greatly affected Indigenous populations.

In 1873, George's sons John and David McDougall travelled the trail south of Edmonton, and continued south to Morley, west of Calgary, along trails that would later become part of the C & E Trail. They even brought herds of cattle and horses along the trial in later years.

In 1874, George McDougall aged 56 years, froze to death after a buffalo hunt near Calgary, being lost in a snow storm.

Peter Erasmus and John McDougall were very helpful in preparing and interpreting for the attending Indigenous members at Treaty 6 in 1876.

Later in his life, John McDougall helped organize the first Calgary Stampede in 1912, as well as the Banff Indian Pageant in 1916.


William Francis Butler was an Irishman who rose to Lieutenant General in the British army, then came to Canada and joined Colonel Garnet Wolseley in the 1870 Red River Expedition. He successfully completed his dangerous mission and then stayed on in Canada, accepting an offer to investigate conditions to establish law in western Canada for the Canadian Government, prior to settlement. He completed a 4000-mile trip, on horseback, dogsled, and on foot, and submitted his report, full of adventure, that became a classic of great importance to western Canadian history, advocating for a well-equipped force that led to the founding of the North West Mounted Police.

Part of his travels took him past Gull Lake, heading south-west, describing the scenery as glorious country to ride over. He camped on the banks of the Blindman River, both going to and coming from the Hudson's Bay post at Rocky Mountain House. A heavy snow storm swept through, and he woke up to his camp buried in snow. Despite his buffalo hide boots and his moose hide mittens, he often dismounted and trotted ahead of his horse until he could feel his hands and feet again. His arrival at Rocky Mountain House ended a 41-day trip of about 1180 miles from Red River, now Manitoba. He spent 8 days at this post and heard many tales of local conflict told by traders, missionaries, voyagers and guides around the camp fires. He met Father Lacombe here and enjoyed his company. Several full-sized Hudson's Bay boats were built at this fort yearly, made of white spruce.

He then headed back the way he had come, spending a few days at Christmas at the Victoria settlement, with the Reverend McDougall and family, where he saw in their farm yard the Manitou stone, taken from a hill top where it had been for centuries, near Viking, AB. The Indigenous Peoples were not happy about it being taken and their ceremonialists declared its removal would lead to great misfortunes of war, disease and scarcity of buffalo. This was printed in a publication a year prior in 1869, by the Wesleyan Society of Canada of a letter from a missionary, setting forth the predictions and expressing thanks that this did not happen. But a few months later, all the predictions came to pass, with the smallpox epidemic and the loss of the buffalo within a few years.

Butler returned to England, but came back again to Canada, going on another expedition in the winter of 1872/73, this time to the north-west through Athabasca and Peace River, into British Columbia and to the coast. He returned to Ottawa that summer and then left for a campaign in Africa.


Joseph B. Tyrell was a Canadian geologist, cartographer, and historian. In 1884 he led a canoe expedition down the Red Deer River, for the Geological Survey of Canada. In June he found coal deposits that became Canada's largest base for domestic coal mining at the time. He also found a dinosaur skull which later became known as the Albertosaurus Sarcophagus, a smaller cousin to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Also, during his 4 years of geological survey, he found a petrified shark tooth in the Burbank area.

He later went into the gold mining business, a career that lasted over 50 years. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology at Drumheller was named in his honor.