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Between 1906 and 1914, Athabasca Landing experienced substantial
expansion. These were boom years for both population and
commercial investment. The Landing grew “from a village of around
200 souls to a frontier town with a population approaching 2000.”
Assorted shops materialized all over the small village to meet the
demands of newcomers and those passing through.
Speculation was rampant and many real estate firms formed.
The poet Robert Service, visiting the Landing in 1911, offered
these observations in his book Ploughman to the Moon:
In anticipation of the Canadian National railway and the first train arriving in
1912, demand for land continued to grow. Railway fever was
promoted by the town’s Board of Trade, and “this kind boosterism, a
heady mixture of facts, promises, hopes and fantasies,” helped
reinforce the town’s expansion.
Despite the first of many fires beginning in January 1912 -
the HBC store and the Imperial Bank were lost - optimism reigned and
both were rebuilt that following summer. On May 14, 1912, the last
of the railway tracks were laid to Athabasca and
the first train arrived on May 25th, 1912.
This was cause for a huge celebration as it was thought Athabasca
would become the junction point on a line leading northwest to the Peace
River country, and northeast to Fort McMurray.
This optimism began to fade, however, following the Great
Fire of 1913 when over one-half of the downtown area
was destroyed. Only a few owners would rebuild,
many others deciding to call it quits after the fire, especially as the writing
was on the wall that new railway lines to Peace River would bypass Athabasca,
putting an end to the need for riverboat transportation.
By May of 1914, the commercial boom had gone bust.
While many still saw the town’s future as favorable,
a few sensible people did not. First, the homesteading boom was nearly
over. Second, many of the railroad companies that had
previously planned to use Athabasca as a junction to
the far north were having financial troubles.
Third, Alberta had gone into a recession.
Both the Northern Transportation Company and the HBC saw
the impending doom. During high-water in the summer of 1914,
NTC owner James Cornwall "undertook the dangerous and
daring exploit" of running his two steamers through the
Grand Rapids. And, at the close of 1914, the last HBC steamboat,
the S.S. Athabasca River, "steamed away for the last time,
bound for Lake Athabasca."
(Athabasca Historical Society 1986, 148-49)
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