Rocky Mountain House as I remember it … a man's view    by A. Brockman

My first recollections are the journey from Edmonton to Red Deer with my parents and sister Clara and Constance, who was only about seven months old at the time. I was nine at the time and Clara was seven. We were accompanied on this journey by Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Williams who had two small boys and Susy their daughter. The boy’s names were Bruce and Harold. I can recall how excited all us kids were when, arriving in Red Deer on the C.P.R. train we all were taken over to the Arlington Hotel, where we were to await the arrival of the conveyance which was to take us to our new home in Rocky Mountain House. In a day or so that conveyance arrived in Red Deer. It was an immense double grain box mounted on sleighs, powered by two huge oxen and, Mr. John Bertrand was the owner-driver. There were five adults and six children, plus the furniture and chattels of two families to be loaded on this sleigh and believe me it was piled high. We left early in the A.M. of Feb. 28th 1910, and we kids easily out ran the oxen as there was little room for us on the load, sometimes we would take turns standing on the backs of the sleigh runners. The weather was ideal, quite mild, as there was a Chinook in progress. Our first overnight places were called stopping houses. Bright and early on March the 1st we resumed our journey; I might add here that there didn't seem to be a defined road, just a trail that meandered over the ridges, across meadows and through muskegs. There were bare patches of ground on some of the ridges, and we discovered low bush cranberries that were quite edible even after being frozen and thawed. Late in the evening of March 1st, we arrived in Beaver Flats where there was another stopping house. This I recall was owned by the McLeod's. Again an early morning start and, around 3 a.m. we arrived at Mr. Bertrand's home which was situated on the N.W. corner of the original town site. If I remember correctly the Williams family stayed with the Bertrand's for a while. My father had made arrangements to stay on the Ves. Hayworth homestead which was located just across the creek close to where the Cache was located later on. We stayed there for about six weeks, until our log cabin was built on the homestead site, located one half mile east of the present town site. The logs for that cabin were cut from the area near Mud Lake and they were chinked with moss we kids pulled off the trees in the swamp. During our stay in the Cache area we met Mr. Fleming, who lived in a dugout before he built his home and brought his family out. I may add here that he had a reputation for witching wells and he witched the well that still supplies water to our home. Our nearest neighbour, a widow lady, Mrs. Hayworth, lived about three quarters of a mile north of us. There were three sons, Earl, Ves and Joel and three daughters, Freda, Elsie and Sylvia. They were very good to us, giving us milk some vegetables. It was my job to go over there every day to get the milk which I carried in five pound lard can. It seemed a long lonely trip through trees and many times I ran most of the way as I was afraid of bears that were around and also for the coyotes that made an ungodly racket. Mrs. Hayworth drove a team of bulls. These animals quite often would trot as fast as a team of horses, goaded on by the small nail inserted in the end of a small pole. I was always afraid of these animals, but was often glad of a ride with her to the Post Office, which was called Prairie Grange and was near the confluence of the Clear water and Saskatchewan River on Mr. Scott McKenzie's homestead, which was about three miles from home. Mr. Leslie Slaght owned the homestead immediately north of the McKenzie place. I can recall how he created quite a furor in the district when he discovered what he really thought were diamonds in the cliff banks of the Saskatchewan River, on his homestead. They turned out to be some type of crystals. The first Sunday school of the area was held in Mr. Slaght's home. He and his wife and oldest daughter, Ruth were the teachers and our first Sunday School picnic was held at the site of the old Hudson Bay Chimneys, where youngster who didn't participate in the games, hunted for old arrowheads and beads. The nearest store was located at Stauffer. In those days Mr. Bertrand made a weekly trip for supplies. The grocery orders accompanied with the required money was taken to his home. When he returned the packages were picked up at his home. There was a small fee for this but I am unable to recall how much it was. It seems to me it was one dollar a hundred pound; however I'm not sure about this. The following year Mr. Jack Killick open a store on the Tom Gray homestead across the river, which wasn't so far away. The first operator of the river ferry, that I can recall, was Mr. Austin. He lived with his wife and two children, Paul and Mae, near the river bank on the west side. They left for Australia in either 1911 or 1912. Mr. Opie Thompson then took over the operation. It was always an adventure to cross the river on the ferry, which was propelled by the action of the river current, held by an immense cable on which the trolleys rolled. The cable was secured in strong cement abutments embedded on each side of the river. In the early days there was a cable car attachment secured to these trolleys which could hold one person. This was the only means of crossing the river during the break-up of the ice in the spring or during the early winter period before the ice became secure enough to be used as a crossing. After the railroad bridge was finished t his was used by the settlers to cross during those periods of the year. I can recall how some brave souls used to bumpity bump their old model T’s across the railroad bridge although the railroad company forbid this practice, which didn't deter these folks. Early in 1911 a school board of trustees was formed and a school was built on the southeast corner of Bruce Williams homestead. Miss Mabel Fleming, from Lacombe, was the first teacher. She was paid the fabulous salary of $50.00 a month. She taught grades one to eight. My father was t he Secretary-Treasurer of the school board. The school was heated by a huge wood heater which hungrily ate the chunks of tamarack wood that were cut and hauled by the various parents. There were no school buses in those days and some of the children came a distance of four of five miles. Almost everyone used tamarack wood, as it lasted longer than the other available woods, and threw more heat. I was one of the first janitors of the school. My duties were to start the early morning fire, clean the blackboards and sweep up the cloak- and classrooms, of which there was only one. The name Confluence School District was taken from the confluence of the two rivers. I can recall the interest created by the oncoming survey of the two railroad companies, and how all the settlers figures how valuable their properties would be with the advent of the railroad. The A.C.R. (Alberta Central Railway) was a subsidiary of the C.P.R. and they were surveying a right of way commencing from Red Deer. The Canadian Northern were surveying from Warden Junction, which was five mile south of Stettler on t he old Calgary-Edmonton branch. They had to come a distance of approximately 130 miles, while the A.C.R. had about 60 miles to Rocky. When the grade was completed and the track lying commenced, it was a race between both companies to see who would arrive first. The prize for both of them was to tap the rich Nordegg coal field. They arrived simultaneously at the junction for the two roads, which is roughly about 150 yards east of where the old depot used to stand. There were fist fights between both construction crews and tempers ran high. Three nights in a row, sections of the track were torn up by opposing crews. However by the intervention of the Federal and Provincial Governments an agreement was reached and construction was resumed. The A.C.R. built the steel to t he bridge site, the Y and the sidetracks, known as the C.P.R. Transfer. They also built the bridge to what was known as Lochern, where the water tank was located. The C.N.R. received running rights over this piece of track, and then continued on to Nordegg. The site of bridge construction crews was on the east side of the river, where many tents and shacks were erected for the crews. It wasn't long before enterprising merchants put up stores at the site. Kirby and Driscoll, I believe, were the first and then it was known as Tent Town. Later when the George Bertrand farm was surveyed for a town site and Tent Town was changed to Old Town. As most folks are aware, a long, high ramp was required on the west side of the river to attain the level of t he bridge. This was constructed by an enormous amount of fill, which was hauled to the site by three small locomotives, known as dinky’s. These were hauled in from Red Deer on huge sleighs and pulled by three- twelve teams of mules. It was really an exciting time. I can recall that they were stuck on the hill in front of my Dad's place, as it wasn't graded at that time. There was one unfortunate tragedy occurred during construction of the bridge. A workman fell off the structure and it was all of two years later that this body was recovered on a sandbar about three miles down river. His body was the first to be interred in Pine Grove Cemetery. I assisted my Dad in digging that grave. Thinking back to that gravel bar reminds me of lignite coal out-cropping about three miles down stream from the old ferry site. Homesteaders in the district used to augment their firewood piles by extracting this coal. At this time we had an oxen team. I used to go with my Dad to help dig and load the coal. This was done during the winter months when the water was fairly low and men were able to get fairly far out into the stream. After shoveling off the ice and picking off the rocks we would find the coal, which was in layers, bright and shiny. Between each layer there were quite large paper thin sheets of mica. When I first saw it I thought it was gold and I can remembering bitterly disappointed when my Dad informed me that it was only fool's gold. This used to be a job that consumed a whole day, leaving home before day light with four bundles of green feed in the sleigh box for the oxen and our lunches. We generally loaded around 4 p.m. We started the trip home up the frozen river to the ferry, then on up the old ferry road, where Beryl Gray lived at the top of the hill. This hill was quite steep and we had to rest the team for four or five times on the way up, securely holding the load by a pair of iron dogs that were fixed on hinges, to the back of each runner. This coal was sold by some of the settlers to home owners in Rocky Mountain House for $5.00 a ton. Before the advent of household refrigerators, housewives used to keep their butter, meats and other perishables in an ice box. The homesteaders generally had a fairly deep hole into which they lowered these things or sometimes a shelf built on the walls of their wells. However, ice was needed for the housewives for Rocky and the first ice came from Lake Ernie, about three miles east of town. This was cut with long ice saws, hauled, and then sold in town. In later years ice was procured from the river. Lake Ernie was also well known for a large grove of white birch which was located on its eastern shore, close to Mr. Wirda's homestead. It was the only hardwood available in the district, apart from the swamp tamaracks and many homesteaders in the area used to get a load of this wood to be used in repairing wagon tongues and reach; for making doubletrees and single trees; handles for hoes or rakes. In these early years I have seen the waters of both Lake Ernie and Mud Lake, which is just east of town, literally black with geese and ducks. Thinking back to construction days, there was an old 1000 type C.N.R. locomotive that tipped over on the curve by the lake and went out of sight in the mire there. Humour was always with these early settlers. A man by the name of Paul Frost, who had homesteaded the quarter (I think now owned by Ashbys), worked hard to grub out two acres. My Dad broke it for him with the oxen. Paul bought 200 pounds of rolled oats and it was claimed he broadcasted them. He was going to grow rolled oats for porridge. This was in 1911.There was a merry soul; whose name, if I remember correctly, was Oscar Wilde. He was a remittance man and he used to ride about the district on a stone boat pulled by a single pony, generally singing at the top of his voice. Another oddity of those early days was a team composed of one horse and one cow, which a Mr. Tenant, who lived on the west side of the river, owned. During the years of 1912 or 1913, the Provincial Government instituted a plan to upgrade the stock throughout the province. This was accomplished by making purebred bulls available throughout various areas in the province. One animal was allocated to each area, depending on the amount of cows. A homesteader or farmer was chosen who already had some cows and who lived it the central part of a district. I can recall that there were Hereford, Shorthorn and Polled Angus in the areas encircling the Rocky district. My Dad was chosen as one of these men. At that time he had a herd of milk cows so he was allocated an Ayreshire, which had an awesome pair of horns. I think this animal was the champion fence breaker of the district. There were few barb wire fences in those days as they were too expensive so poplar or spruce poles composed the make up of most of the fencing. I believe that my folks were the first ones to sell milk to the townsfolk, and it was my job to deliver it. For this, I was supplied an old democrat buggy with one of the two seats removed to make room in the back for the milk. It was pulled by one pony named Dick, and he was adorned with a set of bells attached to his harness to let folks know in advance that the milkman was coming. I hated those darn bells, but my mother insisted they remain on the horse. Milk was delivered at the price of sixteen quarts for a dollar and before the advent of the bottle was contained in several milk cans with a tap at the bottom. I had pint and quart measures and measured out each order. It was a sloppy business and I'm afraid not very sanitary. I for one was happy when the bottles came. The first barber that I can recall was named Jack Burt, and his shop was located next to the J.L. Standish Drug Store. Haircuts were 35¢ and if Jack wasn't busy he would play a customer a game of cribbage. If the customer won, he got a free haircut; if he lost it cost him 70¢. I bought my first razor at the Standish Drug Store. It was a Gillette and 57 y ears later I am still using it. A good $5.00 investment. No doubt there are many people, now living in Rocky, who never heard of the Cache. Believe me it was in those days a vital part of Rocky, because the Canadian Northern Railway had made a terminal there. Train engine crews working out of Big Valley brought the empty coal cars up from the East and set them out on the side tracks at Lodge, about a mile and a half east of town. On their return trip they would pick up a train of coal that had been set out there by crews assigned to Rocky then take them east, where they were distributed to the various C.N.R. terminals to be used to provide fuel for the locomotives in the Western districts. In those days there were four crews assigned to Rocky to work between Rocky and Nordegg, three coal hauling crews, and one way freight crew. Each crew was composed of five men, an engineer, a fireman, two brakemen, and a conductor. There was on the average of three trains, composed of approximately thirty cars a day going through Rocky. Each car held between 30 and 40 tons of coal, depending on the size of the car. The way freight's job was to pick up carloads of mine props which are being produced at Horburg, Ferrier and at the Fisher Spur and the Jack pine, also to switch the domestic coal that was mined at Saunders Creek, West Saunders and another near Harleck. A three stall roundhouse was built at the Cache to house the engine. A ramp was constructed which held three cars of coal. From these the tenders of the engines were loaded with coal. Two men doing the shoveling, with two shifts of men on twelve hour shifts. This was before the 10 and 8 hour days which were in instituted by the Mac Adoo award early in 1920. The wages paid to these men was 22¢ an hour. I know, because that is what I was paid when I became an engine watchman in August, 1918. The Cache in those days was a hive of activity. Mr. Charley Robinson was the first locomotive foreman. Mr. Robinson with his wife, six sons and one daughter, lived in two box cars which had been taken off their wheels and set on the ground just south of where I believe the old section house still stands. Mr. Robinson and his family lived in the back car and the front one was used as an office. The section house was occupied by Mr. W. Paskall where he raised a large family. The Road master, whose name was Mr. Jim Eagleson, occupied a similar home to that of Mr. Robinson; two box cars, one serving as a residence and one as an office. Mr. Alphonse Feys was the night foreman and he had a small tarpaper shack in which he lived prior to bringing his family out from Belgium. Back of the section house, in a spruce grove was the home of Mr. Fred Seymour. His eldest son, Ben, worked in the roundhouse. Then at the end of the old spur was a box car, which was left on its wheels, in which resided Mr. Ben Dickens and his wife. He was the Lineman, whose duty was to keep all the phones and telegraph keys in working order, plus renewing any broken poles and fixing broken wired. His area extended from Warden in the east to Nordegg in the west. He was supplied with a track motor car. I might add here that the men known as coal heavers used to shovel from 9 to 15 tons of coal into the coal hoppers of the locomotives. The hopper's capacity was 15 tons and many of them were nearly empty on arrival in Rocky Mountain House. The first train load of coal out of the Nordegg mines was composed of 14 cars. Each car had a big canvas sign, about five feet wide with four foot letters, proclaiming "The First Trainload of Nordegg Steam Coal". The locomotive was one of the small 1000 type, replaced in later years with the 2100 type which was a stronger engine. This train stopped at the depot where it was greeted with great acclaim and fan fare. The name Cache was derived from a cache of bootleg whisky that was found near the site, hidden by some bootlegger. These men used to supply the construction crews with booze. I have often wondered if any of the older residents of Rocky can recall some of the names of those early railroaders. There was Bill Hanlan, who lived with his family in Rocky; Dan Ardill a conductor, who lived in Rocky and Chesty Thompson, a brakeman who at one time raised foxes across the river. Jim Chalmers had the first butcher shop in Rocky. The slaughtering of beef was done on the George Thompson homestead, which was located three miles west and north of town on the river road. Mr. Thompson with the assistance of A. W. Brockman did the slaughtering. In later years when James Horne purchased the Harry Bertrand homestead, a fairly modern slaughterhouse was built about three hundred yards east of Mr. Horne's house. Mr. George Thompson was the first publisher of the first newspaper, which was called The Echo and was typed out on two and sometimes three sheets of paper. What was known as Fleming Creek, flowed through the Cache and meandered its way to the river, flowing past the back of the Y, through Old Town to where it emptied into the river. It provided a beautiful swimming pool back of the Y. Many brook trout were caught there if one could get there when the youngsters were not swimming in it. Also at the mouth of the creek, bull trout, grayling and sometimes ling were caught. How many residents of the district can recall the year of the rabbit? The whole country was over run by them. Some enterprising soul, whose name escapes me, found out that there was a market for these critters. They were used as meat to supply the fox farms in Nova Scotia. The upshot of this idea was that rabbits were purchased for 5¢ each. The heads, front and back paws had to be cut off. The carcasses were then stacked in piles, at the C.P.R. Transfer, where they were loaded into a car and I believe that eleven carloads were shipped from Rocky Mountain House. This event not only assisted ridding the area of what had become a pest, but also provided a method of earning a little extra money. Many young boys and some girls added to their pocket money by going out among the ridges and muskegs to shoot rabbits, with an old apple box or orange box attached to their sleighs, they would come home with two or three dozen rabbits. Rabbits came from all over the district; Prairie Creek, Ferrier, Horburg, Beaver Flats and many other places, in all kind of conveyances. They came by the hayrack load, in double grain box loads, in sleigh cutter loads. Indians brought in toboggan loads. I can recall Ed Dell, who was the C.P.R. station agent at that time, saying that the freight cost per carload to Nova Scotia was $1,150.00. I might add here that short rifle shells were 20¢ for a box of fifty, most of the rabbits were shot, although some folks snared them. In the days around 1910, 1911, and 1912 the areas were under the supervision of what was known as the Local Improvement District. Each one of these districts had a road commissioner, whose duty was to inspect the roads in his district, arrange for repairs and supervise new road construction. Mr. Louis Karlsen was the road commissioner of the area surrounding Rocky. Homesteaders had an opportunity to work out their taxes by doing road work and the work was generally done in the summer period when it wouldn't interfere with haying operations. Mr. Karlsen would visit them, telling them where and when they were needed and to bring a team of horses if they had one. If not, bring shovels, axes or crosscut saws. Horse drawn slips were supplied by the L.I.D. There were large ones that required a teamster to handle the team and another man to guide the slip. Then there were smaller slips, drawn by one horse. The man handling this outfit had to have the lines about his neck, with both hands guiding the slip. This was a treacherous job as you some times struck either a big root or a stone and if you weren't ready for it, you would land up over the slip among the horse's heels. Mud holes had to be patched, new corduroy poles cut, generally getting the poles right near the road, and brushing was needed. Corduroy poles being laid across the roadbed in swampy and muskegs areas, and then slip loads of dirt dumped on top of them to create the road, which was then graded by a four horse grader. There is a ridge east of town, commencing on the south side of Lake Ernie, continuing on through the cemetery, through the old Hudson's Bay quarter section until it peters out in the muskeg, about three quarters of a mile northeast of town, known as Fox Ridge. Its name came from a den of foxes that one of the Hayworth boys dug out of there around 1910.

This article was copied from the book "The Days Before Yesterday". Reprinted for legibility only. LSP