"Every Canadian, whatever his circumstances, born of respectable parents, should be proud to discover his ancestry, and proud to pass down his family's genealogy to his descendants. Pride in one's name compels in each individual the duty to revere the memory of the pioneers of Canadian civilization, to which we are all heirs, and with this reverence ever present in his memory, he will not relinquish his heritage." (Mr. Francis J. Audet The Royal Society of Canada) Unofficial translation of the text in French

In 1973 the people of Bonnyville, as a whole, began taking interest in their local history. At that time, a committee was formed to discuss the matter. The group,including Gilles Croteau, Gérard Moquin, Henri Lemire, Jean-Claude Lajoie, and Henri Bourgoin, met from time to time, in the Cultural Center.
Their original idea was to produce a historic film, and this met with the approval of the National Film Board in Winnipeg. Unfortunately it was at a time when the Federal Government discontinued grants for this National Film Board regionalization program.

Writing our history was then considered. So Jean-Claude Lajoie and Henri Lemire encouraged Mr. Bourgoin to write articles about pioneer days to be published in "Le Franco Albertain" in Edmonton between 1974 and 1978.
In late 1978 the Bonnyville Nouvelle asked Mr. Bourgoin's permission to publish the same in a series of 29 articles accompanied by 136 photographs.
This first historic research resulted in generating interest among the people so that the following year the Historical Society was formed, which included Bonnyville and surrounding area.In 1980 the Historical Book Committee was established. The Committee decided to publish two editions of the book, one in French and the other in English, believing a second edition would be more economical to publish.

However, after consulting three publishing companies, the Book committee soon realized their idea was unsound and that two books would be twice as expensive to publish. The Committee realized they would be unable to finance such a project.

But the representative of one company advised that by having one bilingual edition, each picture would be printed only once. This would reduce considerably the printing costs. The Book Committee decided they were capable of financing such a production.

That is how the idea of a Bonnyville Historic Book was developed and why it is published in two official languages.

This book is the result of an enormous amount of research. We do not maintain that it is a perfect example of what a book of this category should be. We tried to reproduce it as closely as possible to the style and prose of each "author". We hope that you, the readers, will read these pages, and observe the pictures, with interest, understanding and forbearance.

The Historical Book Committee hopes that this community enterprise will impress upon present and future generations the self sacrifice, courage, and great spirit of adventure of our pioneers. They came from other provinces, from the United States, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden and elsewhere to partake in the vast Moose Lake territory whose beauty had been preserved for centuries by our First Nations peoples.

Henri Bourgoin, historian
Réal Girard, Editor