Rossdale Historical Land Use Study Prepared by: Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited Dr. Harold Kalman, Project Manager, Heritage Resource Planner Meg Stanley, M.A., Senior Historian Dr. Clint Evans, Ph.D., Historian Brian Ronaghan, Senior Archaelogist, Golder Associates Dr. Guy Cross, Geophysicist, Golder Associates Sumbitted to: City of Edmonton Planning and Development Department February 2004 ii ROSSDALE HISTORICAL LAND USE STUDY Contents Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1 Methodology 1 1.1 Background and Objectives ....................................................................................... 2 1.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 5 1.3 Contents of this Report .............................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2 Historiography 7 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Fur Trade, Métis, and First Nations .......................................................................... 8 2.3 Environmental History and Urban History ............................................................... 12 2.4 Rossdale History ....................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 3 Natural History 21 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 22 3.2 Geological History of Rossdale and the North Saskatchewan River Valley ............... 22 3.3 Stratigraphy, Soils, and Flooding ............................................................................... 26 3.4 Flora and Fauna of the Rossdale Area ........................................................................ 30 Chapter 4 Regional History 35 4.1 Prehistory: A Brief Overview to 1750 ........................................................................ 36 4.2 Regional History: 1750 to 1900 ................................................................................ 39 4.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 46 Chapter 5 Rossdale and the Fur Trade 47 5.1 The Trading Posts of the Edmonton Area ................................................................... 48 5.2 The HBC Reserve after 1870 ...................................................................................... 55 5.3 Uses of Rossdale Flats ............................................................................................... 61 Chapter 6 Local History 81 6.1 Land Survey and Transportation ............................................................................... 82 6.2 Institutions, Utilities, Roads, and Amenities ............................................................... 99 6.3 The Rossdale Neighbourhood .................................................................................... 131 Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited ROSSDALE HISTORICAL LAND USE STUDY iii Chapter 7 Archaeological Evidence 151 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 152 7.2 Archaeological Investigations .................................................................................... 154 7.3 Known Archaeological Resources .............................................................................. 166 7.4 Significance ................................................................................................................ 167 Chapter 8 Archaeological Potential 173 8.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 174 8.2 Landform Potential ................................................................................................... 174 8.3 Potential for Prehistoric Settlement ............................................................................ 176 8.4 Modern Disturbance .................................................................................................. 179 8.5 Summary .................................................................................................................... 182 Chapter 9 Geophysical Investigation 185 9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 186 9.2 1992 Investigation ...................................................................................................... 187 9.3 2001 Investigation ...................................................................................................... 191 9.4 Summary ................................................................................................................... 196 Chapter 10 Conclusions and Recommendations 199 10.1 Key Findings of the Report ....................................................................................... 200 10.2 The Burial Ground ................................................................................................... 201 10.3 Long-term Management Plan for Archaeological Resources ..................................... 203 10.4 Recommendations .................................................................................................... 207 Appendixes 211 Appendix 1 - Letter from Alberta Community Development ............................................ 212 Appendix 2 - Select Bibliography ..................................................................................... 214 Appendix 3 - Project Team ............................................................................................... 222 Appendix 4 - Abbreviations of Repositories ..................................................................... 223 Appendix 5 - Maps .......................................................................................................... 224 Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited iv ROSSDALE HISTORICAL LAND USE STUDY Executive Summary The Rossdale Historical Land Use Study examines the many uses that have occurred, and continue to occur, within Edmonton’s Rossdale neighbourhood, particularly within a designated 17.1-acre study area. The present study is one of several parallel initiatives being undertaken by the City of Edmonton that are intended to compile information about the area because of its historical and archaeological significance, to commemorate the former Fort Edmonton burial ground, and to relocate a portion of Rossdale Road that crosses the burial ground site. The History of Rossdale The second chapter reviews essays on historiography, which is the study of the writing of history. This literature review enabled the authors to identify approaches and sources that helped them write the narrative history of Rossdale. The narrative begins with the natural history of the Rossdale area. It presents an overview of the region’s geological history, flood events, flora, and fauna to provide a better understanding of the context for Rossdale’s long history of human use, occupation, and settlement. In prehistoric and early historic times the North Saskatchewan River was the principal transportation corridor through the region. It was these natural features, including the river and its valley, that made the future site of Edmonton attractive to early Aboriginal peoples and fur-traders alike, and which made the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Edmonton prominent not as a trading post and later also as a regional centre. The flats by the river were highly valued by their users and were seen as being the centre of that segment of the universe. Things changed in the late nineteenth century with the arrival of the railway. Economic development focussed on the high land at either side of the river – first Strathcona to the south and later downtown Edmonton to the north. The river and the flats were no longer the focus of all activity. Indeed, the river began to be seen as a barrier and no longer as an artery. The flats gradually diminished in importance and became land with relatively little economic value. For several decades after Fort Edmonton closed its doors, the Hudson’s Bay Company retained the idea of selling its land in the flats for a tidy profit, but over time found that the market showed little interest in it and it was barely sellable for low-cost housing. As the ownership of much of the land was gradually transferred from the HBC to the City over the years, Rossdale became a place for utilities and transportation routes – the power plant, the water treatment plant, a gravel pit, roads, railway lines, bridges, and very nearly also a manure depot, an incinerator, and an expressway. In the 1920s the HBC grazed its horses here and unused land was cultivated for market gardens. An example of the attitude shown to the Rossdale flats by municipal authorities was the dismissal of a roadway traversing them as a ‘cross-valley road,’ with no reference to the land over which it passed. Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited ROSSDALE HISTORICAL LAND USE STUDY v Civic amenities developed here as well, again taking advantage of the low land values. The Edmonton