Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
AL BERTA PROVINCE
New Canadian State Just East
of the Rockies.
THE CITY OF EDMONTON
Future Metropolis of the North and
Its Arctic Trade.
SOME QUEER IMMIGRANTS
Talk With Lieut.. Gov. Bulyea-
What Americans Are Doing in
Alberta-Political Canada.
Copyright, 1906, by Frank G. Carpenter,

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EDMONTON.
1 write this at Edmonton the biggest city
Of central Alberta and the depot for the
vast territories which stretch from here to
the Arctic ocean. Edmonton is the north
srnmost point of continuous railroad con-
nection on this continent. 1t lies three hun
dred and fifty miles above our state of
Montana and there is a line of rail-
roads from it to the edge of Central
America AS it is now one can go in
sleeping ear from the isthmus of Tehuan-
tepec clear across Mexico and the United
States and this far into Canada. When the
railroads now planned are completed
there will be an extension northward to
Alaska, and, if the road should be built
across sBering strait we may some day he
able to go from Calais on the English
channel. by way of Paris, Moscow and the
trans-Siberian road over to North Amer
lea, and on down through here to the 18TH
mus of Panama and thence by the inter
continental line to the strait of Magellan,
or almost to Cape Horn by rail-
Edmonton has already two railroads It
Is reached by the Canadian Pacific and the
Canadian Northern. By this time next
year the Grand Trunk Pacific will have
been built through it, and eventually there
will be extensions northwesterly to the
kicLdike and Cape Nome
IA GhStAopoi1S VI lie INOICu.
For years this has been one of the great
trading points of the north lands. There
are wagon and water routes from here to
the Arctic ocean, which in a straight line
is as far above Edmonton as from Phia-
deiphia to Salt Lake City. BY the lines of
travel and freight the distance is almost as
great as from New York to San Francisco.
The supplies come to Edmonton by rail,
and are then taken by wagons to Athabas-
Ia nd mo ln A tlont ,;,-1 NV,
are hoated down this river to Lake Atha-
basca, and thence into the Great Slave
lake and on into the Mackenzie, which car
rieS them past the various trading posts to
the Arctic ocean. Large cargoes of goods
pass over that route every year and hun
dreds of thousand dollars worth of furs are
brought back over it to Edmonton, to be
shipped from here to New York or Lon
don This trade made Edmonton a town
before the railroads came, and, with the
new lines here and building, we promise to
have one of the biggest cities of the north
west. The place is rapidly growing. 1t has
something like ten thousand people,
and its citizens claim that 1t will equal
Winnipeg some day.
Edmonton lies on the north bank of the
Saska tchewan river, stream almost as
big as the Mississippi and more than a
thousand miles in length. The river here
flows through a valley about mile wide,
the stream itself being about thousand
feet wide. There are high bluffs on each
side of the Saskatc hewan. and Edmonton
Is built OF the DIutfS.
The town winds its way with the river.
and Main street, which is laid out along
old Indian trail, Is as crooked as a
dogs hind leg. The town Is like most of
shapes, materials and heights. The oder
are of one story. but the newer ones
are of brick and stone and many are four
stories high The prices of business prop
erty are out of sight. A fifty-foot lot on
Main street sold last week for S2o, 000. and
a common demand for land in the business
section is $500 or $500 per foot front.
Much Like st. Louis.
Edmonton, as far as its location is con-
cerned, is much like st. Louis. 1t is on a
good-sized river surrounded by a farming
region, almost as rich. as the Mississippi
valley, with a vast country beyond it which
will some time be thickly populated. The
Peace river district, which extends north
ward and westward for hundreds of miles,
is composed of good farming lands, and it
has not yet been opened to settlement. All
supplies for that district will pass through
Edmonton, and the town Will be the key to
the future trade of the north AT present,
1t is at the northwestern end of the wheat
belt, and towns are springing up IN every
direction, for hundreds of miles to the east
and south of 1t.
I came here from Calgary over the Cana
dian Pacific railroad There are towns
everywhere building between the two points.
They look like the frontier settlements of
Minnesota and North Dakota. Their houses
are wooden and their streets unpaved, al
though a few of the older places have side
walks of boards. Every town has a coat
of new paint, and its store windows are
packed with new goods. Great quantities
of farming machinery are kept in sheds or
out In the open awaiting purchasers. L
notice that the cattle are feeding out of
doors. The grass is gray. 1t Is cured on
the stalk and the animals are fat, although
there is some snow on the ground.
The Western Canada Climate.
I am surprised at the climate of this part
OF Canada. 1t is as mild as that of our
central states for the greater part of the
winter The coolest part of Canada is far
Their eastward. About Winnipeg the Their
mometer frequently falls TO forty below
zero. and the coon skin coat is in evidence
from November till May. Here the weather
Is tempered by the warm winds which blow
over the Rockies 1t is heated by the Japa-
nese current to such an extent that II
keeps British Columbia and Washington
green the year round and takes the edge
off the cold of Edmonton and Calgary.
Edmonton is in latitude "a. 1t is several
hundred miles south of ST. Petersburg and
| in what the Europeans think the heart of
the temperate zone.
Indeed the bulk of progressive Europe les
north of the forty-ninth parallel, which
forms our northern boundary. All the
British Isles Holland. Belgium. Scanda-
snavia large part of France, two-thirds of
tEermany, and about three-fourthS Of Eu-