Dunvegan Provincial Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dunvegan Provincial Park |
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 Dunvegan Provincial Park
Location in Alberta
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| Location | Fairview No. 136, Alberta, Canada |
| Nearest city | Fairview |
| Governing body | Alberta Culture |
Dunvegan Provincial Park and Historic Dunvegan (/dʌnˈveɪɡən/ dun-VAY-gən) are two special places in Alberta, Canada, that are found together. They are located in a place called Dunvegan, right where the Peace River meets Highway 2. It's between the towns of Rycroft and Fairview.
This area was once a very important spot for early fur trade and for missionaries who came to teach. The original Fort Dunvegan here is also recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada. It was built in 1805 by Archibald Norman McLeod. He named it after his family's old home, Dunvegan Castle.
Today, the historic site has a visitor centre and four old buildings. During certain times of the year, people dressed in old clothes help visitors learn about the past. The park also has a campground with 67 spots for camping, plus a day-use area and a playground. Alberta Parks manages the campground, and Alberta Culture manages the historic site.
Dunvegan West Wildland Provincial Park is located along the south bank of the Peace River, just west of this park.
Contents
Exploring Dunvegan's Past
The Natural Beauty of Dunvegan
Dunvegan is located on a flat piece of land on the north side of the Peace River. This is where the river reaches its southernmost point in Alberta. The Peace River is still quite new in geological terms. You can see it changing the land with regular landslides along its banks and new sandbars forming in the water.
The river was formed about 15,000 years ago. This happened after the glaciers from the last ice age started to melt. A huge lake covered almost all of the Peace River Country. The Peace River then drained this lake. It flows east and then north, becoming part of the Mackenzie Basin, which empties into the Arctic Ocean.
Over many centuries, as the glacial lake shrank, the river levels dropped. You can still see signs of old shorelines on the broad hill overlooking Dunvegan from the north. Eventually, flat areas appeared along the river, including the one where Dunvegan is now located.
These flat areas were covered with rich soil. This made them full of plants and animals. Sir Alexander Mackenzie noticed this when he traveled through in 1793. After passing near Dunvegan in May, he wrote about the beautiful scenery and the many animals like elk and buffalo.
First Peoples of the Land
Mackenzie and his group of nine voyageurs were looking for new places to trade furs and a route to the Pacific Ocean. In the winter of 1792-93, they camped at Fort Fork, which was upriver from where the Peace and Smoky rivers meet. There, they met members of the Beaver First Nation. They learned a lot about their culture and a bit about their rivals, the Cree.
The Beaver people, also known as Dunne-za, were an Athapaskan (Dene) group. They had moved into the region from the north over a hundred years earlier. More recently, they had faced challenges from Cree groups coming from the southeast. The Cree were also looking for hunting and trading opportunities.
Mackenzie and later European visitors saw the Beaver as generally peaceful. Daniel Harmon, who stayed at Dunvegan from 1808 to 1810, described them as "a peaceable and quiet people and perhaps the most honest of any on the face of the earth."
The Fur Trade Era
In 1823, Fort St. John was planned to close. The idea was to have the Beaver people trade at Dunvegan and the Sikani people trade at Hudson's Hope. However, a group of Beaver people attacked trader Guy Hughes and four of his men at Fort St. John. Because of this, both Dunvegan and Fort St. John were closed.
In 1828, peace returned to the Peace River area. Dunvegan was reopened, and fur trading continued. Soon, Beaver groups were joined by Cree and even some Iroquois people. It became common for groups to travel from places like Peace River Crossing, Sturgeon Lake, and Fort St. John. They would come in spring and fall to get supplies. They would pay for these supplies with furs and meat when they returned.
At Dunvegan, the furs were prepared, pressed, and packed. They were then shipped down the river to Fort Chipewyan and Fort McMurray. From there, they traveled east along the Clearwater River, over the Methye Portage, and into the Churchill River system. Finally, they reached Fort Prince of Wales on Hudson Bay, where they were shipped to London, England.
During these years, Dunvegan grew into a busy trading post. It had over 40 men, and sometimes women too. The main trader had several "servants" who worked for the Company. Many were Scottish, but more and more Metis people joined them. Also, "freemen" were hired to hunt, trap, and transport goods for the Company. Most of these were Metis, but some Cree and Beaver people also worked directly for the Company as fort hunters.
Challenges for Native Communities
With so much trapping and hunting in the area, the number of fur-bearing animals became very low. This caused great hardship for the Native communities. The 1840s were especially difficult. In 1842, Chief Trader Francis Butcher wrote in his journal about people arriving at the fort, "nothing but skin and bone," due to starvation. He described families being too weak to travel.
Besides hunger, diseases brought by Europeans also caused problems. Throughout the 1800s, there were outbreaks of influenza, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis. Many people died from these illnesses.
Because of so much sickness and hunger, many European visitors in the late 1800s thought the Beaver people were disappearing. However, they survived, with many moving west into British Columbia. Even though the international Spanish flu outbreak of 1918-1919 greatly affected them, their population grew steadily in the years that followed. Many also married people from other First Nations.
Missionaries Arrive
Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries showed special concern for the Beaver people around Dunvegan. They came to build churches near the trading post in the late 1800s. The first Christian missionary to visit was a Methodist named James Evans in 1841, but he did not stay. In 1867, an Oblate missionary, Father Christophe Tissier, started the St. Charles Mission just east of the trading post.
Father Tissier's letters show the difficulties faced by many Oblate priests who went to remote areas in the Northwest. He stayed until the mid-1880s. Several other priests followed him, mainly Father Emile Grouard. Under Father Grouard, the mission was improved, and a new church and rectory (priest's house) were built. These buildings have been restored and are now a main part of Historic Dunvegan.
In 1880, the Anglicans started a mission on the west side of the trading post. The first Anglican missionary, Thomas Bunn, was soon replaced by John Gough Brick. In 1886, Alfred Campbell Garrioch arrived. His book, A Hatchet Mark In Duplicate, gives a rare look into life around Dunvegan and the Northwest at that time.
Garrioch stayed until 1891 with his wife, Agnes. While there are no buildings left from St. Savior's Mission, the site still has some of the Manitoba maples he planted. It also has the grave of the Garriochs’ baby daughter, Caroline.
Later Years of the Fur Trade
The fur trade around Dunvegan began to decline in the 1880s. This was one reason Garrioch left. Even the Oblate missionary, Joseph LeTreste, who stayed until 1903, saw fewer people attending the St. Charles Mission.
The decline happened even after Dunvegan became the main office for the Peace River Trading District. This district included posts at Fort St. John, Hudson's Hope, Fort Vermilion, Battle River, Peace River, and Lesser Slave Lake. New buildings were constructed east of the old North West Company site. These included a fur office, two large warehouses, and a Factor's House. The Factor's House was built in 1878. It is the oldest house still standing in northern Alberta and is a key feature of Historic Dunvegan.
However, in 1878, the Hudson's Bay Company decided to focus more on the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. Furs were then sent to Fort Edmonton along the Athabasca River. The ten years before this had seen a lot of competition on the Peace River from independent traders. These included the Elmore Brothers, William Cust, Dan Carey, and Henry Fuller "Twelve Foot" Davis, who set up a post across the river from Dunvegan.
Treaty 8 and New Settlements
In 1899, Treaty 8 was signed with the First Nations people of what is now northern Alberta. People with some Indigenous background were offered Half-breed scrip as another option instead of joining the treaty. This happened during the Klondike gold rush. The government believed many settlers would soon come to the region.
With the signing of the Treaty, the government felt it was safe to encourage farming in the Peace River Country. Some lands were set aside as reserves for Native people who chose the treaty. North of Dunvegan, a large Beaver reserve was divided in 1905.
However, large-scale settlement was delayed because there was no railway. In 1909, the Alberta government offered money to railway companies to extend lines into the Peace River region. Several projects were announced. A government land office was set up at Grouard, and land was divided into townships and quarter-sections. Homesteading, or settling on new land, began.
Dunvegan's Townsite Dreams
The railway that finally reached the Peace River Country in 1915 was the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway. It was owned by John Duncan MacArthur. The first plan was for the railway to cross the Peace River at Dunvegan. Because of this, several business people bought land around the old fur trade site. They even bought land in the surrounding hills to create townsites. Many investors bought lots in these townsites, sure that Dunvegan would become a big city.
However, MacArthur soon realized it was almost impossible to build a bridge across the Peace River at Dunvegan. The banks were too high, wide, and jagged. Instead, he built his railway from Watino to Spirit River. He planned to eventually reach the British Columbia border and beyond. Another railway line crossed the Peace River at Peace River in 1919. The townsites at Dunvegan never fully developed. Many investors still owned subdivided lots in the area until recently, some even on the hillside.
Market Gardens Flourish
With the townsites not developing and the fur trade almost gone, the Hudson's Bay Company trading post, which was now a store, finally closed in 1918. But this was not the end of business for the site. In 1909, the provincial government installed a ferry. This ferry soon became an important link between the north and south Peace River Country. Alberta Highway #1 (later #2) crossed there. In 1912, a government telegraph office was also set up.
In 1921, Robert and Lily Peters moved into the Factor's House. They also bought the 32 acres around it that belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. They and their children lived there until 1943. The Factor's House was their home, but it also served as a grocery store, gas station, post office, and telephone exchange. The mission site became a home and repair shop for the ferry operators, and the chapel became a general store.
The Peters also grew a large garden. It produced many fruits and vegetables. Farming had been important at Dunvegan since the early 1800s. It was one reason the government thought the Peace River Country would be great for farming. Mike Marusiak of Rycroft knew this. In 1946, he bought the Peters property to start a market garden. Over time, this became the most successful market garden in northwest Alberta. It was famous for its corn, cucumbers, other vegetables, and various fruits, especially strawberries and watermelon.
Dunvegan Historic Site Today
Meanwhile, the land holding the St. Charles Mission and Rectory continued to be owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Athabasca. People often had picnics at the site. The Fairview Chapter of the Knights of Columbus started taking care of the Church buildings. They eventually turned the Church into a museum. In 1956, they convinced the provincial government to buy part of the site as a provincial park. The government then began restoring the buildings. The area to the west, the old St. Savior's Mission site, now called "the Maples," was also a popular picnic spot, mainly used by Anglicans. It later became a municipal park, managed by the Municipal District of Fairview.
In 1960, the provincial government replaced the ferry with a large suspension bridge. In 1978, the Factor's House was named a provincial historic resource. In 1984, the government bought the building and the surrounding area, which included the St. Charles Mission and rectory. Land to the east was then turned into a provincially run campground. In 1994, a Visitor Reception Center opened. Visitors were encouraged to come there during the summer months. The Centre continues to serve visitors and is managed by the Department of Culture with the help of the Fort Dunvegan Historical Society.
