Commercial Boom - Streetscapes and Landscapes

Streetscapes

The commercial core of Athabasca Landing in 1912.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta, Aca.13

If Aladdin came to Athabasca, he would throw his lamp away as unnecessary and get to work for himself and thus increase his self respect. There is no town which offers so many opportunities to the man who is willing to work as this good old town of Athabasca...In the lobbies of Athabasca hotels you will see trappers and hunters fresh from the wilderness, oil men from California and Pennsylvania, merchants from the north, west, east and south here to purchase stock from the wholesale houses...freighters, chauffers...and to add color to this, the uniforms of the fine looking officers and men of the famous North West Mounted Police.
This scene typifies the varied resources of this wonderful town. There is buoyancy and hope and confidence...The tremendous resources of Athabasca are such as to defy the imagination to predict what will happen here in ten years. There are so many reasons why this is so that it is impossible in this letter to undertake to enumerate them. Get a map of western Canada, place your finger on Athabasca, study the resources that are inevitably tributary to her and then calculate for yourself what the probabilities are for a dense population at this point. A good mixed farming country with plenty of timber, plus the hydrocarbons and other minerals, plus a navigable river have been considered sufficient to make large cities. Athabasca has these and innumerable more advantages. This year 1914 is expected to be the most prosperous in its history. If the citizens will stand together as they have in the past this town may be depended upon to hold her position as the leader of the Northern push and enterprise. (Athabasca Historical Society, 123-124)

View of Athabasca Landing, 1911.

View of Athabasca Landing in winter, 1909.

View of Athabasca Landing, 1911.

Strathcona Street, Athabasca Landing. (Before 1913)

View of Athabasca, Alberta

Skinner Street, Athabasca Landing, 1908

Freighters loading on Strathcona Street, winter 1912-1913

View from East Hill

Mail wagon at Athabasca Landing

Train pulling in at the CNR depot in Athabasca

First train to Athabasca

Mounties on parade on Empire Day

View of Athabasca in Winter

Hudson's Bay Co. on corner of Strathcona Street, 1900.

A deserted town, Athabasca, 1920s.

Revellon Fréres' Store, Sept. 1907.