Stories

Stories tagged: recreation

Shadows, Shade, and Sunshine

Oumar Salifou

In its 1966 annual report, the City of Edmonton Parks and Recreation Department described its purpose as facilitating “the development…

An Everlasting River Valley Retreat

Ryan Stephens

Here on Keillor Farm, the scenery and serenity of the vast Canadian prairies is everywhere, though it’s packed into a…

Left to right: Val Scoffield, Sophie Derbawka and June Dumka dressed in old-timey clothing during the Victoria Park Golf Course’s Centennial Celebrations (1907 to 2007) in 2007. Image courtesy of Joan Crawford.

How Sophie Got Her Way

Lea Storry

“Sophie had red hair and was a lively personality,” Joan said. “She was a schoolteacher and goal-focused. She was determined to get that cart path.”

Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre: Architectural Masterpiece and Community Recreation Hub

Tracey L. Anderson

A Centennial Project  Coronation Park, in west central Edmonton, is a 35-hectare park named to honour Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation. Although small compared…

The Starlite Drive-In Theatre in Jasper Place

Allie Quigley

The concept of a drive-in theatre was first experimented in 1933 in New Jersey, though it soon spread to Canada…

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…

Finding Sophie’s Way

Lea Storry

Sophie’s Way is a twist of concrete winding up a short but steep hill in the Edmonton river valley. The…

Edmonton: A World Class Dump, Part Three – Salvage Men, Coal Mines, and a Futuristic Weir

Dr. Russell Cobb

In the middle of the twentieth century, G. S. Woodward was one of a handful of Edmontonians who plied the…

McKernan’s Lost Lake

Katherine Koller

Although the lake is no longer visible, its “ghost” is discernable on early maps and in the form of flooding…

Big Island: A Window into the Past

Peggy Donnelly

Big Island, a 70-acre island located 16 miles upstream from the city of Edmonton, is a lesser-known piece of Edmonton’s…

The North Saskatchewan River

Ester Malzahn

Before the highways and railways, there was the North Saskatchewan River. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Saskatchewan River…

Cloverdale Bridge

Kristine Kowalchuk

The Cloverdale footbridge crosses the North Saskatchewan River in central Edmonton, connecting Henrietta Muir Edwards Park in Cloverdale and Louise…