Seeing the World
Looking out from Smoky Lake

by Christy Taylor

Studying the community of Smoky Lake is for me, a fascinating adventure. As I go through countless books and articles, as well as twenty years of my parents' old newspapers, I am delighted to watch the interactions between the world and my town. In school we are taught about the fur trade, pioneer times, the world wars, the Cold Wars and many other "out there" events. Studying Smoky Lake is helping me to place and relate these events. On this page, I want to try to put some of this history together.

 

Victoria Settlement

The recorded history of the Victoria area started around 1862 when the McDougall's arrived. The McDougall's were among the first Methodist Missionary's who came this far west. Of interest to me is some of the background history about the Methodists in Canada and how the church itself reflected some of the tension between Britain and America over Canada. (read more)

Shortly after the McDougall's arrived came the Hudson's Bay Company. Working at Victoria Settlement Provincial Historic Site I ended up listening to a lot of questions about the sale of alcohol and I could readily tell the visitors that at the time Victoria Settlement was founded, the HBC was not into selling alcohol. However, the Hudson's Bay at that time, was still out to make a profit. The book 1885 Metis Rebellion or Government Conspiracy by Don McLean talks some about what the Hudson's Bay Company did do, attempting to create unemployed labour reserves that it could draw upon when needed, and to gain control of the buffalo hunt by disqualifying the Metis people's own rules of the hunt.

 

Smoky Lake

Smoky Lake is an interesting town with a long history. It was the railway that lead to Smoky Lake being placed where it is, but now the railway itself is leaving town and the last of the grain elevators is scheduled to come down sometime soon.

The politics of the province affects the town. Privatization of the Tree Nursery has lead to the loss of quite a number of jobs, and changes in the Diary Board rules affected the ability of Horizon Dairies to survive. 

I am working on copying Smoky Lake Signal articles online. Which articles are online already and which are in a pile by my computer to be put online when I get time is determined fairly randomly, as I have only so much time to work on this. Those pertaining to county, town or provincial politics, available online now, are as follows. 

....and Canadian politics:

It is also interesting to note though, the affect that world politics plays on Smoky Lake. The following articles came from the June 11th 1980 issue of the Smoky Lake Signal:

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