Historic Tour of Mill Creek Ravine

Notes from a Walk in Mill Creek

Conducted by David Borgstrom and Tom Monto, September 2010

Historic features of Mill Creek

Moving away from River

Bird’s mill remains (post in dry gulch)

Twin City coal mine evidences

Western Clays brick plant evidences

Now-disused roads west of railway line appear as open strips and are sometimes used as informal footpaths today

Vogel site (little evidence except Vogel Hill Road)

Bonnie Doon Swimming Pool

Railway trestle bridges

Papaschase Indian Band grounds south of 76 Avenue

Below is rough draft of a walking guide to Mill Creek starting at Whyte Avenue and moving north toward the river

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Below John Logan’s house on 83 Avenue is an old stone fireplace and chimney, the remains of old squatter’s huts in use in 1910s or 1920s.

(see Ben Swankey of Work and Wages, which Jim Selby distributed to his class)

Nearby are old building sites that were not served by roads. (perhaps those once owned by Elmer Luck?) perhaps poorly-paid miners or packing plant workers lived there they could not afford cars anyway so did not need a road adjacent to their homes.

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Bonnie Doon Swimming Pool

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88 Avenue steps descend to Mill Creek. You come to the Vogel Hill Road, the name referring to the large business enterprise (packing plant) owned by Wilhelm Vogel that was once located here.

North (to the right of the steps as you descend) is level ground where sat Vogel’s residence (removed in 1980s)

The house across Vogel Hill Road (at 9644 - 88 Avenue ?, replaced an earlier one, which had been used as on office for the packing plant.

Mill Creek flooded in 1976. The Noel? Kinniard (sp?) family living at ?? “Guinnard”? but at the time the building site was lower in the valley and beside the creek. The family living there was used to periodic flooding. But this flood was worse and the family ended up climbing on the roof for safety . They eventually were rescued by the fire department launch.

Cross the creek on the semi-elliptical vertical? culvert (concrete tunnel that carries Mill Creek underfoot). The culvert may be historic, maybe 100 years old.

The open area here was the site of the Vogel packing plant

The first plant, built of wood, burnt down, in part due to lack of water. A new plant built of brick was built.

To remedy the water situation, Vogel dug a well. It was hand dug so it had to be large enough to wield a shovel inside it. When it was finished, it was so large across that it had steps on one side.

The well has been filled in and is not visible.

It was near this spot that the Overlanders, gold-seekers on their way to the Cariboo Gold Rush of the1860s, crossed the ravine. As a member of the group later recalled, after two months on the road trip from Winnipeg, the 200 or so gold-seekers arrived at a particularly steep creek running into the river valley. The travellers had to cut a path through the dense growth of trees and brush, then use ropes to lower each wagon one at a time and to pull each one up the far bank. The ravine made for hard work. But a few hundred metres farther on, they looked down on the river flats—and on Fort Edmonton on the opposite bank of the river. They had arrived in “civilization.” (Supplemental information below)

Climb the hill. A triangular intersection of walking paths, near a look-out, is built on the site of the spur line that served the packing plant.

In the trees uphill is a brick foundation for an old garage, now gone.

Proceed north atop the ridge.

The Pre-WWI Western Clays plant sat in the open space west of the main walking trail (the old rail line). This plant operated from 1912 to 1914. According to Jack Manson, it was located south of Pete Andersons’ plant on Mill Creek, on lots 1-13. Block 126 and Lots 1-18, Block 130, Blk G, Riverlot #17). Western Clays (1913) Ltd., if it started in operation in 1913, was fast off the mark as the Edmonton Bulletin of April 28, 1913 announced that the plant had 300,000 bricks on hand. However the bricks produced by the plant were of poor quality as they had many cracks and were prone to premature disintegration. Apparently, this, plus the general slowdown caused by the world war, caused the business to close after only a couple of years. (Jack Manson, Bricks in Alberta, p. 115)

The EY&P railway…

Nearby steps lead to a flat area at the top of the ravine. This flat area is the site of the old road that served the brick plant and the Vogel packing plant

Half-way up the steps, to the north, the right side, is an old road grade winding into the trees (It is most visible by a person walking north on the main walking trail and looking left. It is easily discernible on old historic aerial photographs.

Twin City Coal Mine

When you come to where a “Multi-use Trail” comes out of the ravine on the right, look to the left. Slightly above the main footpath is an old beam lying on (in) the ground. Above that is an open space, probably the site of the tipple that carried coal conveyor-style over the rail line and from which coal was dropped into rail cars.

Remains of supports for the tipple lie east of the main walking trail. They are earthen bulwarks. You can see more easily when the leaves are gone.

The Twin City coal mine was a large operation with veins stretching underground in three (or more ) directions. One long working stretched almost to the river, ending near the old site of the John G. Auto Building. (refer to Taylor’s Coal mine Workings publication)

Rubble mound west of main footpath

openings for old roads off to the side of the footpath

Locate the fire hydrant opposite 9727 - 93 Avenue.

Walking into woods north of this landmark you will find the site of various mine buildings. Large pieces of conglomerate foundation are the remains of the change shack. Where the mine’s (number) employees prepared or debriefed after their shifts. (how many shifts did the mine work in a day?) One piece supported the north-east (south-east?) wall of the shack.

Northeast of these remains you will find a depression. This is the remains of the “lift hole,” which contained the lift that transported the miners below ground. Metal rods stick out of ground in at least two places

West of this depression is the historic vent shaft. Circular in size although one side is hidden by dirt, Quite large and lined with brick. It has been filled in but the “filling” has subsided, exposing the feature once more.

Returning to the street notice the fine, historic homes along this picturesque street. Proceed west to intersection and turn right.

An open area on your right (opposite 9316 98 Street) was once protected by a fence. Remains of the fence are still visible in some places. This may have been a garden, or a corral for the workers’ horses or for the pit-ponies that pulled miniature railway cars back and forth down in the mine.

Walking into the open area, you may find other evidences of past residences or business. The willow bunch offers some tantalizing evidences of past human activity.

A large, long rubble heap can be found in the trees to the south, roughly opposite 9340 - 98 Street

At the east end of the open space, away from the street, you can see reminders of an old building site.

Returning to the main walking trail (the old rail line).

At the top of the hill to the east is a neighbourhood that since its creation has been a toney part of town. During the City of Strathcona days, it was known as Knobb Hill, a reference to an exclusive part of town in San Francisco?. On one of the highest points there, you can see an old residence, now a recognized historic building. The Molstad House, at 9633 - 95 Avenue, is a private residence and not open to the public.

You are now near a modern footbridge across Mill Creek The bridge is number 278 as a small plaque informs you.

Proceeding along the creek you come to the large culvert/tunnel that carries Mill Creek under the Old Timers’ Cabin. The creek is underground for the entire rest of its journey to the river.

Climbing the large berm that forces the creek to enter the tunnel, you find a pleasant park. On the right (east) among the trees you may notice some old building sites, where private homes nestled in this park-like setting. Caragatas and maples still grow where these early residents planted them to decorate and shade their homes.

A walk past the Conservatory and along the now-dry bed of Mill Creek will take you to the site of William Bird’s mill, ca. 1874. (see supplemental information below)

Nearby is the site of one of the area’s first coal mines. In 1882, local entrepreneur Donald Ross started a simple “gopher hole” mine near the by-then-abandoned mill. Due to concern about the mine undermining the community’s future roads and buildings, Ross was refused permission to develop the mines and it was closed. (see supplemental information below)

1862 The Overlanders

After a two-month trip from Winnipeg, the “Overlanders” arrived at a particularly steep creek running into the river valley. The travellers had to cut a path through the dense growth of trees and brush, then use ropes to lower each wagon one at a time and pull each one up the far bank. The ravine made for hard work. But a few 100 metres farther on, they looked down on the river flats—and on Fort Edmonton on the opposite bank of the river. They had arrived in “civilization.” They had crossed Mill Creek ravine near today’s 89 Avenue.

The group stopped to rest in Fort Edmonton, where 60 men abandoned the trip to try their luck in the Edmonton area. The others, including the Schubert family, took to the trail again, first going to St. Albert, a mission established by Father Lacombe only a few years earlier. After passing St. Albert, the group was again forced to break a trail through wilderness that had not yet seen a wagon.

In October, after loss of life and serious danger and hardships, the survivors arrived in the Cariboo gold country. Historical records say only one of them made any kind of money out of the Gold Rush. (Monto, Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression)

Mill Creek

Mill Creek starts near 23 Avenue east of Meridian Street. Meridian Street marks today’s city limits at that point. The creek pours into the North Saskatchewan River near 96A Street. Tunnels carry the creek’s main branch underground from south of Wagner Road to 69 Avenue, intermittently through the ravine north of there and in its final length before joining the river.

A smaller branch, running from 54 Avenue and 94 Street, joins the main creek near 73 Avenue.

Mill Creek has had several different names: Stoney Creek, Bird Creek, Mill Creek. The district of Edmonton known as “Bruderfeld” by its early Moravian settlers was renamed “Mill Woods” after the creek that runs through it, as well as to meet developers’ need for a mock-pastoral identification for that suburb. Other names of this ilk are “Forestlawn” and “Pollard Meadows.” (Monto, Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression)

1870s Mill on “Mill” Creek

Permanent settlement in South Edmonton began in the 1870s as part of the settlement surrounding the Hudson’s Bay Company fort. Southsiders were not organized into their own group separate from the north side. In those early days, the “Edmonton Settlement” consisted of some farms, churches and businesses, strung along the river, the main route of traffic, and centred around the old Fort Edmonton on the site of today’s Legislative Grounds.

Across the river from Rossdale, which was the site of much fort activity throughout most of the 19th century, lie two different river flats: Walterdale in one direction, Cloverdale in another. Cloverdale seems to have been the location of the first southside offshoot of the fur trade.

In 1871, the HBC directed their resident miller William Bird to build a water-powered flour mill on the southside of the river near Mill Creek, in Cloverdale. According to one source, a sole relic marks the site of this mill. A wooden piling 56 centimetres (22 inches) in diameter stands in the abandoned creek bottom east of the Low Level Bridge. The piling is just northwest of the north end of the pedestrian overpass at 98 Avenue.

Over the next year, Bird carefully chose his mill stones, and it was arranged for a dismantled mill to be brought from England. The machinery was carried to Edmonton by oxcart.

Despite this investment of energy, the mill was not a success. The mill got going in spring 1874 and continued in use only until about 1878. Bird found the water level in the creek was undependable and often too low to power the mill properly. He switched to using a horse on a treadmill but found he could not compete with the steam-driven flour mills others were using.

After the mill’s demise, Bird shifted to farming in the area of his house, on land that would be identified in the 1882 survey as the north half of Riverlot #19. His farm also included upland that would become the southern half of Riverlot #23.

It appears that for many years families had been settling in the area around the fort but only in the 1870s, were their names recorded. Metis families such as the Daigneault family, the Donald family, Charles Gauthier, George Kipling, Joseph McDonald, John Ashen and the Garneau family, were recorded as establishing pioneer farms on the southside of the river in the 1870s. With the exception of the Garneau family, headed by acclaimed violinist Laurent Garneau, and Joe McDonald, member of an illustrious HBC family and later a prominent land-owner in the City of Strathcona, these families drifted, or were pushed, out of the area within a few years.

Coal mines

Since the 1860s, local residents dug coal from exposed coal seams in the area. The miners established informal “gopher hole” mines, usually by digging horizontally into the banks. The most suitable locations for these small “drift” mines on the southside were places where coal seams were exposed in the Mill Creek ravine, at the east end of Cloverdale (on Dowler’s Hill and in the Dowler’s Creek ravine) and in the river valley “cliffs” below Scona Hill and today’s Old Timers’ Cabin.

The exact number of mines in the Edmonton area will never be known as many small informal mines were never registered. Official government recording of mines was not established until 1897. Sometimes these mines pose a problem when the ground above slumps into the mines’ tunnels and cavities. A catalogue of Edmonton coal mines, published in 1971, stated that probably 90 percent of the slumping had already occurred, but that still leaves 10 percent still to fall.

According to the Edmonton Bulletin, a mining company owned by “Mr. Moore and W. Ross (interpreted to be Donald Ross by area historians) opened a coal mine in Riverlot #17 North in late 1880. The mine, located near William Bird’s old mill, had two “gopher hole” mineshafts, . Each of them burrowed about 30 metres into the west bank of Mill Creek ravine. In 1882, the mine employed six men and operated year-round. It thus was Edmonton’s first year-round commercial coal mine and was said to be one of the largest of the “gopher hole” coal mines in the area. It produced coal for the Hudson’s Bay Company steamboats during the summer and for heating of buildings during the winter.

The Edmonton Bulletin reported, “It was the intention of the proprietors to ship the coal to Winnipeg but as it was found impossible to make satisfactory arrangements [for steamboat transportation] the project was abandoned.”

Be that as it may, Moore and Ross were apparently forbidden from developing the mine as it was seen to be within the future boundaries of Edmonton. There was concern about the mine undermining the streets and houses that would be built there. Permission to enlarge the mine was refused, despite one of the owners declaring he “had squatter’s claims to the ground.” Although short-lived, this mine was recorded on the first land survey for the area, conducted in 1882.

The Mill Creek Ravine park map indicates a feature identified as #18 nearby but what the number indicates is not clear.

Perhaps someone at 496-7275 can provide more information.