Stories

Stories tagged: farming

: A three-storey brick cell block is connected to a workshop and another large industrial building with two tall chimneys. There is a large hole in the side of one of the buildings suggesting it had started to be dismantled and/or suffered structural damage. A tilled farm field that would have been worked by prisoners is in the foreground.

Hard Times in the Alberta Penitentiary, 1906-1920

Matt Ormandy

The Alberta Penitentiary operated on Edmonton’s River Lot 20 from 1906 – 1920, where Clarke Stadium is today. It was the first federal prison in Alberta. One constant in prisoners’ lives was unpaid hard labour, from mining coal to farming potatoes.

Early Market Gardens in Edmonton

Katherine Koller

Surrounded by rows of towering tomato, cucumber and pepper plants in a greenhouse near Edmonton, I marvelled at tapas from…

In Dark Times, Go to the Garden: Part 2

Jenna Chalifoux

With the last blast of winter gusto already forgotten and double-digit weather on the horizon, now’s the time to start…

The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1

Dr. Russell Cobb

Advertisements promoting the “Last Best West”—a frontier open to all pioneers—have become an ingrained part of the Canadian national mythology.  Like…

The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 2

Dr. Russell Cobb

Read The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1. As we noted in Part 1, early…

Forest Heights: A Hidden Pocket of History

Allie Quigley

I grew up in Forest Heights, a neighbourhood in southeast Edmonton, overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. The neighbourhood is known…

Edmonton’s River Lots: A Layer in Our History

Connor Thompson

In 2018, a new Edmonton park was opened and given the name “ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞,” an appellation that evokes…