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History of Weekly Newspapers at Bonnyville
by Ovila Baril
Ovila Baril
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Since I arrived in Bonnyville
with my family in 1932 when I was only nine years old, Bonnyville's
first weekly newspaper, The Bonnyville Nouvelle published
by J.W. Johnston was the show window of the fledgling community
of less than 500 residents.
Mr. Johnston published his weekly from premises in the La
Rivière Building across main street from Vallée
Store. When Mr. Johnston passed away, his widow continued
publication for about one year then ceased operations and
moved away, leaving the equipment idle until Frank and Ted
Lambert revived The Nouvelle. With assistance from Manny
Pitre, Bonnyville's weekly was published for a couple of
years and again the doors were closed.
A short while later the Lambert Brothers sold the printing
equipment to Harry Traxler and Florian Paradis who moved
the printing press and associated machines to St. Paul,
Alberta where they published The Independent Reformer until
the spring of 1947 when I purchased the printing equipment
and brought it back to Bonnyville.
In June of 1947, I founded The Bonnyville Tribune and published
my first edition on June 15th from humble quarters located
in a small building located at the rear of the lot now owned
by Bonnyville's Caisse Populaire. At that time, that lot
was fronted by a small wooden frame building, owned by Armandine
Ouimet (Mrs. Paul Corbierre). She operated a hairdresser's
shop in half of the building while the other half was rented
to Alberta Government Telephones. AGT at that time comprised
of a tiny switchboard, a pay station and the operator, Miss
Florette Martin who also collected telephone bills.
The Tribune provided Bonnyville and district with a weekly
newspaper and commercial printing from those premises until
business volume demanded larger premises to house more printing
equipment. A second weekly was established at RCAF Station
Cold Lake then a third weekly had to come into being to
serve the booming town of Grand Centre. Because of the friendly
rivalry which existed between Grand Centre and the town
of Cold Lake, a fourth weekly was established for the residents
of Cold Lake. It was at this point when The Tribune sold
its main street property to Harvey Howatt whose wife built
a ladies wear store called Rose Marie Dress Shop. Meanwhile,
I purchased Henri Bureau's property on 49th Avenue and Bureau's
Furniture Exchange acquired the former Co-op Store.
From the new Tribune Building, I published the four weeklies
and produced commercial printing for most of Northeastern
Alberta until 1962 when Sun Publishing Co., Ltd. of Edmonton
made me an offer I couldn't refuse. The Sun published The
Tribune for a very few years when the entire operation went
bankrupt, thus leaving Northeastern Alberta without weeklies
of its own. Various attempts were made to bring in weeklies
in Bonnyville, Grand Centre and RCAF Station Cold Lake,
also the town of Cold Lake but without success until Meridian
Press Co., Ltd. of Lloydminster came in with a brand new
Bonnyville Nouvelle and proceeded to serve the area with
an excellent weekly and commercial printing facility under
the management of Manfred Kroenert.
While enjoying leisure hours of recollections, my memory
bank often goes back to those early years in the newspaper
business when my wife and I were the only staff. We would
set our type by hand after covering the various events which
occured in the village of about 800 residents. Subscriptions
were sold at $2.50 per year and advertising space went at
50¢ per column inch. In many instances, subscriptions
and advertising were paid on the barter system such as a
two year subscription plus a small advertisement for 12
months in exchange for a wood and coal space heater.
When I sold in 1962, The Tribune Co., Ltd. included a full
fledged letter press plant in Bonnyville and three branch
offices in Cold Lake, Grande Centre and RCAF Station Cold
Lake where I employed a local reporter photographer in each
location.
Some of my staff members over the years included Ida Caouette,
Mrs. John Pardell, Joe Ouimet, Omer Joly, Manny Pitre, the
Tardif brothers, Hugette Hétu, Claude Legassé,
Ronald Théroux who now works for The Bonnyville Nouvelle
and the elusive Frank Tuck who performed very much like
the Scarlet Pimpernel.
During the 15 years I published my weeklies in Bonnyville,
I witnessed the village become a town, the drilling of the
first natural gas well started by the Dubuc Brothers and
completed by Jack Carrol, the dramatic installation of water
and sewage facilities, the creation of the Bonnyville Separate
School District, the establishment of Bonnyville's first
airstrip built on land owned by Léo Beauchamp. Also
saw the expansion of Coulombe Beach, Vezeau Beach into impressive
resort centres, including a 9 hole golf course.
While earlier relating to Joseph Dion who bartered with
me for subscriptions, it's worth noting that Mr. Dion wrote
a series of articles for The Tribune dealing with the history
of the Cree nation on the Prairies. His articles were acquired
by The Glenbow Foundation of Calgary and subsequently compiled
into a book entitled, My Tribe The Crees.
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