Opal Wildfire Update #15

July 12, 2010

In 1988, long-time pioneer and resident Anne Woywitka used the following words for an article she wrote for Western People Magazine:  “Forty miles north of Edmonton runs a narrow band of land about 20 miles wide and a hundred miles long.  It extends from Bruderheim northwest to Opal, Fedora and Waugh.  From there it continues north over the Redwater to Nestow, Rochester and Athabasca.  Within this area a glacial drift once swept across North America.  It left behind a hodgepodge of wet meadows flanked by steep hills and numerous creeks, bogs, swamps, muskegs and miles of sandhills, as well as some arable land.  It was as if nature caught up in a vile fit dumped all its frustration along this front.”

Her son still farms in the area.  If you're a farmer, the area that Mrs. Woywitka describes might not be very appealing but if you're part of the natural world this band of land is like the Garden of Eden.  For all the birds, mammals, bugs and an assortment of other critters this band of land is home and they reside here in large numbers.

Back in 1964 the province recognized the following:

In 1963 (the fiscal year ending March 31), the Provincial Parks Board (which operated under the Provincial Parks Act 1964) and the Historical Sites Advisory Committee reported to the Provincial Secretary's Department that they recommended to include the Athabasca Landing Trail as an active park and a historical site (re:  P.A. access # 74-169-I0.I.C.1705/61 Alberta Parks Act).  Included in this report, but separate from the Athabasca Landing Trail, was the recommendation that the Tawatinaw River Valley and its watershed be considered a Heritage Corridor.

The historic Athabasca Landing Trail makes up the spine of what was referred to as the '100 Mile Portage' between the Saskatchewan and Athabasca river systems.  The trail was constructed in 1874 and a lot of traffic has passed and a lot has changed over the years yet because the area offers so little arable land much of what was present back then is still in place today.  Most of the land that was not claimed by the homesteaders is now Natural Area, grazing lease or other SRD lands.

Mrs. Woywitka saw the area through the eyes of a homesteader/farmer.  There is no doubt that this band of land offered great challenges to those who were hardy enough to try and make a living off of it.

Others saw the area quite differently.  They saw it as a land of  adventure and some wrote about it.  James Oliver Curwood in his novel The Valley of the Silent Men put it this way:  "The Athabasca Landing Trail is the picturesque threshold over which one must step who would enter into the mystery and adventure of the Great White North."  Curwood claimed that the Dogrib and Slavey people called the '100 Mile Portage' Iskwaham.  Translated to English it means 'the door' ( I hope he did his research).

Whatever you call it,  the area offers the outdoor treasures and adventure that Alberta is famous for.  The culture and history of the area goes back to a time before Calgary and the cowboy culture were present in Alberta.

I think that the people that sat on the Historic Sites Advisory Committee back in 1964 had it right.  The Opal and other Natural Areas as well as other SRD lands when connected by the Athabasca Landing Trail would fit beautifully into a linear park.  When supported by not-for-profits, private operators and communities that exist along the trail there is no end to the tourism possibilities.

Good people are presently working to turn this plan into a reality.  It could happen and it will if we support it.  Using a quote from W.P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe (Field of Dreams):  "Build it and they will come."

Thanks.

Richard