While co-operation and mutual respect were characteristic of the relationship between the missionaries and traders at Victoria, so too was a profound interest in the welfare of the local inhabitants, primarily natives and English speaking half-breeds. For those familiar with the course of Alberta history, the name McDougall is synonymous with such concern. For years George, John and the indefatigable McDougall women laboured on behalf of their native brethren. It was said to have been a labour of love, but the hardships were many and the results sometimes slow in making their appearance.

When the McDougalls and the Hudson's Bay Company first began work at Victoria, it was little more than a picturesque Indian camp on the shores of the North Saskatchewan River. By the turn of the century, however, it had become a sizable rural community, its population numbering well over one hundred. As the settlement grew in numbers, the businesses serving the community also prospered. In the early years of the 1900s, Victoria (or Pakan as it was then known) boasted of three machine shops, two stores, two blacksmith shops, a hospital, hotel, telephone office, church, school and harness shop. 2 But what of the intervening period, the period of slow yet methodical growth? Why did Victoria become an attractive home for large numbers of immigrants and the field for marginal economic development? And was its development unique or did it epitomize the trends in early western Canadian history? It is the contention of the author that the latter is the more accurate. Indeed, it is the objective of this study to outline the history of the Victoria settlement in the hopes that its importance will become better known. The settlement progressed from mission, to fur trade post, to small rural community, as did several Alberta towns and cities. To record the history of this site is to provide the citizens of Alberta with a visible link with their past.

While the author has endeavoured to write a fairly comprehensive and hopefully interesting history of the Victoria settlement, he makes no claim to have written the definitive study. Many of the relevant documents have been either lost or destroyed and of those which remain a great deal pertain to Victoria only indirectly. From the material which was available, however, relevant historical trends have been noted and important single events elaborated upon. As with any work of this kind, the author is indebted to a host of different people. To single out only a few, I wish to express my thanks to Shirlee Ann Smith, Archivist, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg; Reverend C. Glenn Lucas, Archivist, United Church Archives, Toronto; John Gilpin, former Reference Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta; the staff of the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary; and the residents of Pakan and Smoky Lake.

A special thanks is also due to the late Maurice S. Sullivan. As the researcher originally assigned to the Victoria project, he uncovered a wealth of important material. It is regretted that he did not live to see its completion.