Winnifred, Alberta

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Winnifred
Location of Winnifred, Alberta

Winnifred is an unincorporated community in Alberta, Canada, within the County of Forty Mile No. 8. It is located approximately 50 km (31 mi) southwest of the City of Medicine Hat and 14 km (8.7 mi) east of the Town of Bow Island.

Alberta Province of Canada

Alberta is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,067,175 as of 2016 census, it is Canada's fourth most populous province and the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces. Its area is about 660,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi). Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1, 1905. The premier is Jason Kenney as of April 30, 2019.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, with 70% of citizens residing within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

County of Forty Mile No. 8 Municipal district in Alberta, Canada

The County of Forty Mile No. 8 is a municipal district in south eastern Alberta, Canada.

Contents

The County of Forty Mile No. 8 considers the community to be a hamlet. [1] However, Alberta Municipal Affairs does not recognize it as a hamlet. [2]

Hamlet (place) small settlement in a rural area

A hamlet is a small human settlement. In different jurisdictions and geographies, hamlets may be the size of a town, village or parish, be considered a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. The word and concept of a hamlet have roots in the Anglo-Norman settlement of England, where the old French hamlet came to apply to small human settlements. In British geography, a hamlet is considered smaller than a village and distinctly without a church.

Alberta Municipal Affairs is a ministry of the Executive Council of Alberta. Its major responsibilities include assisting municipalities in the provision of local government, administering the assessment of linear property in Alberta, administering a safety system for the construction and maintenance of buildings and equipment, and managing Alberta's network of municipal and library system boards.

History

Winnifred, originally a whistle stop at Mile 31 on the Dunmore Junction, also known as the Turkey Track, was upgraded to a siding in 1885 named after a daughter of J.R. Whitlaw, one of the charter members of the Turkey Track.

Dunmore, Alberta hamlet in Alberta

Dunmore is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Cypress County, located 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) southeast of Medicine Hat's city limits on Highway 1 and the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline. A portion of the hamlet is recognized as a designated place by Statistics Canada.

In 1903 the only buildings were the section house where William Savage lived, a dugout for the section hands, and a small two room building that housed the telegraph office. No more than ten people lived in the surroundings.

A railway section house is a building or house-like structure located near or next to a section of railroad used for housing railroad workers, or for the storing and maintenance of equipment for a section of railroad. Section houses were used mainly from the 1890s to the 1960s. By the 1970s, section houses were being slowly phased out. In Canada section houses were usually located right across from the railway station.

Four years later in 1907 the Alberta Government opened up the district between Grassy Lake and Winnifred for homesteading.

Grassy Lake, Alberta Hamlet in Alberta, Canada

Grassy Lake is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within the Municipal District of Taber. It is located on the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3), midway between the cities of Lethbridge to the west and Medicine Hat to the east. It is approximately 13 km (8.1 mi) west of Burdett and 34 km (21 mi) east of Taber. It has an elevation of 810 metres (2,660 ft).

Homesteading

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Pursued in different ways around the world—and in different historical eras—homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation of the homestead. Use of the term in the United States dates back to the Homestead Act (1862) and before. In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in nations formerly controlled by the British Empire, a homestead is the household compound for a single extended family. In the UK, the term 'smallholder' or 'crofts' is the rough equivalent of 'homesteader'.

Settlers from Eastern Canada and the mid-western states flooded the area, taking up almost every quarter section of land for miles, unaware of the drought-ridden nature of the region. With lack of water and wood, settlers relied on wells for water and small coal deposits in the area for heating.

Settler person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there

A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally from a sedentary culture, as opposed to nomads who share and rotate their settlements with little or no concept of individual land ownership. Settlements are often built on land already claimed or owned by another group. Many times settlers are backed by governments or large countries. They also sometimes leave in search of religious freedom.

Eastern Canada Region in Canada

Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:

A quarter section, often shortened to quarter, is an area of one-fourth of a square mile, or 160 acres (0.65 km2). It was a common size of a tract under Homestead Acts in the United States and the Dominion Land Survey in Canada.

The first few businesses in Winnifred came in 1908 and the spring of 1909. P.J. Demarce opened a store on the south side of the tracks; William Hickmore imported lumber from Lethbridge for a hotel and eating house; and J.S Fisher, of Whitefish, Montana, opened the Fisher Mercantile.

In 1913, most of the businesses expanded and moved across the tracks, where they joined F.W. Brown's Hardware and Quong Chon's combination laundry and café. The Fritz Sick brewery of Lethbridge built an up-to-date hotel. The site of the Union Bank was diagonally across from the Fisher Mercantile building.

The boom years for Winnifred were 1915-1916, when heavy rains produced bumper crops. It was too good to be true, as in 1918 the Fisher Mercantile went bankrupt and the first of many homesteaders started moving away. The hotel went the same year and was moved to Brooks. The newspaper The Winnifred Record, [3] which started out so bravely to chronicle the development of the community, folded shortly after.

The 1920s were harsh years for the remaining settlers, with drought, clouds of grasshoppers and finally hordes of rabbits who ate everything that looked like grain. More settlers packed up and left, and with the help of the government moved to homesteads in central and Northern Alberta.

By the mid-1930s, dust storms completed the task and farm after farm was abandoned. It took thirty years for the determined homesteaders to appreciated that without irrigation the land was best suited for ranching.

Modernizations completed the process of decline as the consolidation of schools and re-routing Highway 3 drew even more of the population off to larger centres such as Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. The few remaining business such as the Turtle Café, operated by Wing Chong, closed in the early 60s, and Winnifred became a ghost town except for the grain elevators and their operators. Eventually they too ceased to exist and were torn down. Very little of Winnifred's rich history remains, just memories and photos.

Today young families are moving back into Winnifred, in a sense repopulating the town once again. [4] [5]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Regular County/Municipal Committee Meeting" (PDF). County of Forty Mile No. 8. 2010-09-10. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  2. ↑ "2011 Municipal Codes" (PDF). Alberta Municipal Affairs. 2011-01-05. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  3. ↑ The Ghost Towns Journal - Book
  4. ↑ Lights on Project UFA Rural From the Roots Up
  5. ↑ Bow Island Commentator - Young Families Moving Into Winnifred

Coordinates: 49°54′16″N111°12′35″W / 49.90444°N 111.20972°W / 49.90444; -111.20972 (Winnifred)

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