From the Smoky Lake Signal, January 9, 2002
Riverlot #3 gains highest Provincial Designation
Three years ago when John Geiger gave up his job at the Edmonton Journal to become associate editor of the National Post, he knew it would mean moving from Edmonton to Toronto, but he still hoped to visit Alberta enough to keep his summer home on River Lot #3 at Victoria Settlement. He found that he hasn't been able to visit the area as often as he liked, and has decided to sell it to his former boss at the Edmonton Sun editor and chief Graham Dalziel. The new owner is appropriate. Mr. Dalziel has been looking after the property for the last three years and shares Mr. Geiger's interest in history.
John Geiger, for the last seven years, has been working to have his historic river lot designated as a provincial historic resource. It's the highest designation the province can bestow on a property and the province has recently agreed. The blue plaque will be affixed to one of the buildings, the free trader's house that Mr. Geiger has partially restored in the front of the property. It's the oldest historic building in private hands in the province.
Mr. Geiger bought River Lot #3 ten years ago from Frances Stapleton of Calgary, who lived on the property during the summers. She was active in the Friends of Fort Victoria and enjoyed studying the local history.
River Lot #3 was one of the first lots that was settled by the half-breeds (descendants of Scots and English who married native women) who were asked to come out to Fort Victoria from Selkirk colony in Manitoba, by George McDougall. River Lot #3 was settled by Andrew Spence and his brother, and Joseph Favell. This was before the original survey which established the river lot as one property. Favell was an early Hudson's Bay Company paddleboat captain who steamed on the North Saskatchewan River.
Archaeologists have found the foundation of the Favell house. The path from the house to the river is still visible.
The McGillivray house was moved onto the property in the early 1900s from what is now the Harold Mitchell property. The logs were numbered in Roman numerals and the cabin disassembled. A log cabin store house was also built on the property then and still stands.
The store house was built out of rounded logs, the McGillivray house was Red River style squared logs with dove tail notched corners. McGillivray, who built the cabin, was the great grandson of the Honourable William McGillivray, who was one of the founders of the North West Company.
At the time McGillivray built his cabin at Victoria, the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were one enterprise. McGillivray spent his life working for the Hudson's Bay Company, retired and was on pension when he decided to trade furs in opposition to his life long employer, the Hudson's Bay Company. And so the McGillivray house became known as the free trader's house. The fact that both the Hudson's Bay chief factor's house on the provincial historic site at Victoria and the free trader's house near by have survived, make the area historically significant.
River Lot #3 was eventually sold to the Cromarty family, who owned it from the 1920s until Frances Stapleton purchased it in the 1970s.
"When I bought the property in 1992," said John Geiger, "I didn't realize the fur trader's house was actually a house. I thought it was just an old granary. Only when I did the research did I find that having been built in 1873 it is the oldest privately owned house in Alberta."
Working with the Historic Sites Department, he has had the house declared as a provincial historic resource, the highest level of designation the province can confer on a property. It's a special building, and its relationship to the history of Alberta is important, said John Geiger.
In his ten years owning River Lot #3 John Geiger has rebuilt the free trader cabin. One end of the building had almost collapsed. New logs were cut from trees grown in the Saskatchewan River Valley, then hand hewn to replace the logs that had rotted. New doors and windows have been constructed using the historically correct square nails, exactly as they would have been built in the original.
In the future, the building will have to be painted white, and a new floor installed. The original staircase is now stored in the barn, ready for installation. It will take a lot of work, but the new owner, Graham Dalziel said he will continue with the project.
River Lot #3 is an important part of the Victoria Settlement area.
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