Was the Papaschase reserve terminated to allow the construction of the C&E Railway line in 1891?
Dick Garneau on his website says the C&E used the location of its "end of steel" as a bargaining chip to get its way. But contemporary reports in Edmonton's only newspaper at the time, The Edmonton Bulletin, does not draw that connection.
Certainly the line went through what had been the reserve until the year before but lines go through reserves everywhere. So the presence of the reserve was not an obstacle to the line, it seems.
I found reference in Edmonton Bulletin (of June 28, 1890) on Edmonton Bulletin-versus-Calgary Herald skirmish on shenanigans concerning determination of where C&E would cross North Saskatchewan River.
The article referred to past accusations (not seen) that the reserve would be used as profit machine of speculators but then the article corrected this impression saying the reserve had still not been sold so was not in private hands. And of course the C&E never did cross the river. The growth of Strathcona on the south side (not part of the reserve land by this point) was the eventual outcome of the shenanigans.
Edmonton Bulletin Oct 4, 1890 says railway line being surveyed through "Indian reserve on South Side" (the Papaschase reserve). Its surrender was made official on Oct. 24 that same month. the land was not immediately made available to speculators -- the land was not put on auction and sold off until two years later. according to my Strathcona book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots available at Alhambra Books and other fine bookstores..
I could not find any reference to correspondence or relations between C&E and the band.
Dick Garneau's version has the fault that Ellerslie did not exist at that time. at least it is not mentioned in the Edmonton Bulletin at all, at all in 1888 to 1890.
Having the end of steel at Ellerslie in later years may have made economic sense to the railway line. But it would have been inconvenient for Edmonton shippers. Still all the traffic to Edmonton would have had to go there, to be trans-shipped expensively by horse and cart into town. and if the end of stlll had been there, the end of steel would have formed up as a large centre while Strathcona, equally "bald prairie" at the time, would have suffered from on-going competition with Edmonton for all the ensuing years.
The railway really did not serve Edmonton well, even with its end of steel at Strathcona (and it did much of its business south along the line and contributed to urban growth (the sprouting up of Wetaskiwin, Red Deer, etc.) south along the line). And by 1905 Edmonton had two of its own rail-lines operating separately from the C&E line anyway.
But Garneau's version is otherwise likely.
The C&E line did go through Bear's Hill reserve. The local band there objected but did nothing to stop the survey being done - or the construction, according to the Edmonton Bulletin. But the line was source of ongoing friction.
The C&E was likely to want to avoid conflict and was likely to have made threats of relocating ( I think Randy Lawrence says alternative crossing was possible at mouth of Whitemud, I think) and the location of the line was critical to Edmonton's development so until it was actually laid it was massive leverage, and perhaps the leverage did push Frank Oliver and others to close down the reserve.
Even with that success, the line did not cross the river to Edmonton. It would be 11 years before Edmonton was connected to any railway line.
But Edmonton Bulletin does not seem to say anything about the termination of the Papaschase reserve being connected to the C&E line.
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