Get Your ING-On In Alberta! ​
_edited.png)
If you would like to use any of the following stories marked as a History Handout for your customers and guests, or for other reproductions, please contact the author, Sheila Willis, through this form. References for historical content available upon request.
_edited.jpg)
1920 Crows Nest Pass Train Robbery (06-2024)
On Monday August 2, 1920, CPR Train No. 63 was robbed in the Crowsnest Pass. The ensuing manhunt took the lives of two police officers, a special constable, and two of the robbers.
Instead of riding up on horses with their guns blazing, these robbers bought tickets and boarded the train. Near Sentinel the robber began. When the conductor did not believe the bandits, a gunshot in the corner of the train car put things into perspective.
The robbers searched only the male passengers, some down to their underwear. It seemed they were looking for someone specific; perhaps a well known bootlegger, whom it was rumoured to take the train carrying $10,000 in cash. They got $500 to $600 and a watch.
At Sentinel the robbers got off, firing a shot at the conductor, telling him to start the train and go - which he did, with all the passengers on it.
Image Credit: Weekly Albertan (Calgary),
Oct. 20, 1920, Page 12
The robbers were identified as Tom Bassoff, George Arkoff, and Ausbey Auloff. Hunting them were the R.C.M.P., the Alberta Provincial Police, the C.P.R. investigative unit and citizens sworn in as special constables.
The posse scoured the Crowsnest pass, turning up lots of clues, but not the robbers. They missed them when they robbed a group of campers at gunpoint near Burmis on Thursday and when they were seen in Coleman on Friday.
On Friday night Auloff left the group of robbers. The next day, Bassoff & Arkoff went into the Bellevue Cafe to get some lunch. They were recognized. Police officers Frewin, Usher and Bailey went into the cafe to arrest them. A gunfight ensued that left Bailey, Usher, and Arkoff dead and Bassoff wounded.
A cordon was formed at the entrance to Crowsnest Pass. Every member of the posse was armed and instructed to shoot on sight. This may have led to the fourth fatality on Sunday night; Nick Kistruck, a special constable. He and Constable Hidson from Warner were searching an empty house when a freight train went by. Kistruck, perhaps intent on checking the train, jumped out a window and started running. Hidson, not recognizing him, ordered Kistruck to halt. He didn’t and Hidson fired, killing him instantly.
On Monday morning Bassoff limped into Mrs. Holloway’s farmhouse near the Frank Slide. She pretended she didn't recognize him, gave him food and sent him on his way before calling the police.
The manhunt intensified. More officers were used and bloodhounds, insured for $5,000 each, were brought from King County, Washington. None of these located Bassoff - a railway worker saw him on the tracks near Pincher Creek and notified the authorities. Bassoff was arrested later that evening.
It took the jury an hour to find Bassoff guilty of the murder of Constable Bailey. He was sentenced to hang. He walked to the scaffold at 6 am on December 22, 1920. It was the fourth hanging in Lethbridge and the third in the provincial jail.
​
This story is available as Hisotry Handout 06-2024. Click here for more info.
​
Lily Vining - Moses of the Peace (05-2024)
A view of the Peace River. Credit: Sheila Willis
that, in 1872, he had been on the Peace River hunting beaver. He was also looking for his cousin, Mrs. Armston, and her husband who had disappeared. They had left Fort St. John in the fall to trap along the Peace River for the winter. Instead, he found a starving baby on a raft that he left with an Indigenous woman who was a nursing mother.
It seemed likely that Lily was the baby on the raft and the daughter of the missing Armstons. Over the years Jean continued to search for his cousin and her husband. He found signs of them along the Peace River, but always left empty handed.
Lily was around 18 years old, and engaged to marry Herber Melvin when Jean found their bodies. They had died of starvation in their cabin after Mr. Armston had been seriously injured. Mrs. Armston built a raft, placed Lily on it, and sent it down the river hoping someone would find her.
Jean also found a bundle hanging from the ceiling. It confirmed that the birth date chosen by the Vinings for Lily, March 31st, 1872, was correct. It also contained information that Mr. Armston had a son in England. In the event of Armston’s death a legal firm in London was to be contacted, so Mr. Vining wired them, telling them he had adopted Armston’s daughter and asked for the son’s name and address.
The reply was shocking. The son’s name was Herbert but under the terms of the will of his aunt whom he had been left with his last name had been changed to Melvin. Lily Vining was engaged to be married to her half brother! Needless to say the wedding was abruptly called off.
Lily’s full story had many strange coincidences. When Jean gave the baby to the nursing mother they found a scar on the second toe of her left foot. Both said it “looked like a scar that might be older than the baby”. When Lily was older Rev. Garrioch saw the same scar. He thought it looked like it had been made by a hatchet. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Armston had a scar on the second toe of her left foot that was made by a hatchet.
I hope that Lily was able to live the remainder of her life with less mystery, adventure and near misses. I wasn’t able to share all the coincidences in this condensed version - but I can tell you she had enough in her first 18 years to last a lifetime!
This story is available as History Handout 05-2024. Click here for more info.
​
In 1879, on a stagecoach going to St. Paul, Minnesota, Ernest Vining met A.C. Garrioch, a minister from the Fort Vermilion area. Vining asked him to find information about his 7 year old daughter, Lily. She had been given to the Vinings by a free trader who said she had been found floating on the Peace River.
​
As luck would have it, on his trip home, Garrioch hired a Blackfoot guide named Jean who told him
Light Fingered Justice of the Peace (04-2024)
In late 1913 Mirror Landing was anticipating the coming of the Edmonton, Dunvegan & British Columbia Railway. Up until that time Mirror Landing was a steamboat town located at the junction of the Lesser Slave and Athabasca rivers, and a major stopping place on the route north.
A view of Mirror Landing around the time Gardiner was JP.
​The business men of the town were busy getting ready for the big economic boom that the railway was sure to bring their way. They had applied to incorporate as a village under the name Port Cornwall and the Royal North West Mounted Police had established barracks there. One thing was needed; a Justice of the Peace.
Enter William Mortimer Gardiner. He was highly recommended (at least in his own words) using Alberta Premier Sifton, Mr Harmen the Deputy Minister for Railroads and Telephones, and the Honourable Frank Oliver as references in his letter to the Attorney General’s office. J.L. Cote the area M.P.P. (M.L.A.) and Superintendent McDonnell of the RNWMP, “N” Division sent in personal recommendations.
On October 1st, 1913, Gardiner received a telegram confirming his appointment. He was told he could commence with his duties once he had taken the Oath and sent it to the Attorney General’s office. That Gardiner, and perhaps the local police, were not above cutting corners was immediately apparent, as his first fine was issued on October 1, and the Oath was sent in on October 3rd.
Over the next year and a half Gardiner issued fines, primarily for having intoxicating liquor in a prohibited district as per the NWT Act and for possessing or selling moose meat under the Game Laws. There were drunk and disorderly charges, a few assaults, and even the occasional fine for visiting, or running, a house of ill fame thrown in. In one case a man was fined $5 for failure to provide for his wife compared to the $50 fine generally issued for illegal alcohol.
Around July 1915 Gardiner failed to turn in some fine money. It wasn’t long before the Attorney General’s office was looking for him. By January 1916 all Alberta police detachments were told to watch out for him. It was reported that his son-in-law, a bank manager in southern Alberta, had received a letter from Gardiner but he would likely deny it for family reasons as he was “keeping his mother-in-law.”
In October 1917 the Deputy Sheriff of Spokane County, Washington confirmed Gardiner had been in the area of Mead the year before and was wanted for larceny there. It was finally recommended that the charges against Gardiner be dropped. He had gotten away.
At some point Gardiner returned to Canada, living in the Vancouver area. He and his wife celebrated their Golden Anniversary there in May of 1930, and Gardiner passed away at the age of 89 in March of 1941.
​
This story is avilable as History Handout 04-2024. Click here for more info.
​
​
The Murder of Edward Hayward by Charles King (03-2024)
In September of 1904, Edward Hayward and Charles King, set up camp on the Sucker Creek reserve at the west end of Lesser Slave Lake. Hayward was friendly but King kept to himself. On their third night there, Joseph Keesaynees heard a gunshot coming from their camp.
The next morning, Sophia Cardinal, went to the camp to deliver a pair of moccasins Hayward had asked her to make. King was throwing sticks on a large fire and made motions for her to leave. Sophia, who had experience cooking moose meat over a fire, recognized the smell of burning flesh - and the absence of Hayward. She left, probably as fast as she could.
Later that day King was seen on the trail alone. People were getting the idea that things were not good for the missing Hayward. They went to the campsite to look around and in the ashes of the campfire they found burnt pieces of clothing and other suspicious items. The most telling of these were three bones that fit together, and formed what looked to be part of a human skull. Chief Moostoos, took these bits of evidence home and put them in a baking powder tin.
​
When he told Sergeant Anderson of the Northwest Mounted Police, that they thought Hayward had been murdered, Anderson thought the story to be a fabrication based on the ‘superstitious nature’ of the Indigenous residents. Bones that look like they came from a skull are hard to ignore though and soon the camp was being searched for more evidence. After more gruesome finds were made, Charles King was arrested and charged with murder.
​
In Edmonton, the preliminary hearing took place on February 20th, 1905. The crowd of onlookers was so big that they had to move the hearingfrom the police barracks to City Hall. After this hearing, King went on trial where he was found guilty. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, and again, was found guilty.
​
For each of the court proceedings the witnesses from Sucker Creek were brought to Edmonton to testify, often through an interpreter.
​
King’s first date with death was May 10th, 1905 but it was delayed for the retrial. His second scheduled date to hang was August 31st. The inauguration for the new province of Alberta was to be the next day. It would ‘never do’ to have a hanging discolour the festivities and the hanging was delayed again. On September 20th, the hanging finally took place.
​
King’s body was placed in a rough coffin, facedown. The death warrant was put on his back with his hands over it. His coffin was carried to the southwest corner of the fort enclosure by three other prisoners. After he was buried they levelled the spot leaving no mound to mark the spot.
​
Had the residents of Sucker Creek not reported the suspicious circumstances, assisted with collecting the evidence, and offered clear and unwavering testimony in the trial, King may have easily gotten away with murder.
​
This story is available as History Handout 03-2024. Click here for info.
​
​
​
Starved on the Pembina (02-2024)
From the Jarvis, Fawcett & Athabasca Region
When Jack (Buck) Chapman and George McMillan left to trap along the Pembina River in September of 1887 they had no idea of the hardships they would face. They planned to trap together, yet run two trap lines, with two separate camps. This way they could cover twice the territory, hopefully catch twice the animals, yet ensure each other's safety on a daily basis.
​
​
When they reached the Pembina they found a camp used by two other trappers the year before and set up their first camp there. Leaving half their food, and other supplies there they set off a day’s travel downstream to set up their second camp.
Everything was going pretty good through the winter. Their fur catch included 30 fisher and other fur bearing animals. At the end of February things took a drastic turn for the worse when their food supply ran out. They resorted to eating the carcasses from the animals they trapped and when those were gone, the pelts were next up on the menu.
​
Their new diet did not sit well with them. George McMillan was the first to get sick but recovered fairly quickly. When Jack Chatman got sick though he did not recover. Whatever he had paralyzed him from the waist down. He was totally reliant on McMillan for two months.
​
On the 26th of April, their luck seemed to be changing when the ice went out on the Pembina. On the same day McMillan managed to shoot a partridge and made a soup out of it. With his belly full, and the ice gone, Chatman’s spirits were raised. There was an end to his ordeal in sight. It was quicker than he thought as after eating the soup, he went to sleep and died.
​
McMillan, being weak as he was, took an axe and chopped a grave in the frozen ground. He wasn't able to get it very deep so placed brush and poles on top to protect the grave.The next day, McMillan got in the canoe and started going downstream on the Pembina and then the Athabasca rivers. The ducks had arrived so he was able to shoot some and feed himself.
​
When he reached Athabasca, half starved, he told Leslie Wood of the Hudson’s Bay Company what had happened and reported Chapman's death. He reported that he buried Jack “Buck” Chatman where the fifth Meridian crossed the Pembina the second time. He then went on to say that as soon as he was back in shape he was going to go to the Great Slave Lake and hunt and trap there. personally I think it shows the fortitude of some of the early explorers looking to make a new life in the north.
​
This story is available as History Handout 02-2024. Click Here for More Info.
​
Weddings | Events | Vacations
Hermann Nicklaus of Dog Island (01-2024)
Captain Hermann Nicklaus and his wife Elsa, lived on Dog Island in Lesser Slave Lake from 1911 until 1923. He was raised in Hamburg, Germany, and at the age of 15 went to sea as a cabin boy on a merchant sailing ship. With him was his only brother, Hans. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Chile and the only survivors were Hermann, and the boatswain who saved him. He went to
work on other boats, and eventually immigrated to Canada.
Captain Hermann Nicklaus and his wife Elsa, lived on Dog Island in Lesser Slave Lake from 1911 until 1923. He was raised in Hamburg, Germany, and at the age of 15 went to sea as a cabin boy on a merchant sailing ship. With him was his only brother, Hans. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Chile and the only survivors were Hermann, and the boatswain who saved him. He went to work on other boats, and eventually immigrated to Canada.
Hermann and Elsa failed at homesteading near Melville, Saskatchewan, and went to Edmonton where they met Jim Cornwall, owner of the Northern Transportation Company. Hermann was hired as captain of the Northern Light, a passenger ship that went from Saulteaux Landing on the Lesser Slave River, to Grouard on the far side of the lake.
On this route was Dog Island where the couple settled and built a home, sharing it with two Irish Setters, a few chickens, a couple of pigs and a few heads of cattle - - and a stallion named Daddy. The horse would occasionally get ‘a bit lonesome’ and swim to the mainland in search of company. Hermann would go to shore, and after locating the horse, tie him to his motorized boat. The amorous stallion was made to swim all the way back to the island, perhaps as a cooling off period.
Hermann loved Dog Island, composing songs about it and his wife, Elsa. Once, Emily Murphy was on a ship going across the lake. It stopped for Hermann as he approached in a row boat, expecting to collect Elsa who had been in Edmonton for dental work. Instead, he received a bottle of whiskey from her and a message that she would be home coming later.Hermann lamented "My wife, my wife! For the whiskey I don't give one damn, but my wife, my wife."
Baldy Red, a legendary bootlegger, who witnessed this tirade, could not understand Hemann’s position as in his view “a woman is, after all, only a woman, but a bottle of whiskey is a drink!”
One of Captain Nicklaus’ good friends was Francois Twin, chief of the Sawbridge Band at that time. Their banter was often unorthodox and on at least one occasion resulted in two boys, rolling on the ground in laughter.
With the coming of the railway in 1913, the steamboat era was ending. Hermann and James Cornwall leased Dog Island as part of a commercial fishing enterprise and later in 1922 Hermann captained the tug boat “Archibald” for the Northwest Lumber Company.
After losing their home to fire in 1923 the Nicklaus’ left the area.After living in San Francisco for five years, they returned to Germany, where they lived in Stralsund on the Baltic Sea. Stralsund was heavily bombed by the allies in World War II and the Red Army occupied it ten days before the war in Europe ended. Their fate will likely never be known.
​
This story is available as History Handout 01-2024. Click here for info.
​
​
_edited.jpg)
Fred Brewer's Diary
In 1912, Fred Brewer, along with two other men, started from Edmonton with the intnt of going to the Peace River country. The trio went by way of the Athabasca Landing and Lesser Slave Lake trails. With Fred Brewer were Thomas E. Denning from Iowa, and Williard Martin from North Dakota. Later, along the trail they joined the outfits of F. Olsen from California and O. & E. [Eddie] Johnston from Minnesota. Mr. Brewer, who turned back after reaching Grouard, kept a diary of the trip which is a wealth of information - and humour.
In 2017, I met Brewer's grandson Ron Payne and his wife Marlena, who had come to northern Alberta to follow the path of Ron's granfather. They have given me permission to share the diary. Click here to read the diary. (Some grammar is edited for readability.)
​
If you would like to use any of the following stories as a History Handout for your customers and guests, or for other reproductions, please contact the author, Sheila Willis, through this form. References for historical content available upon request.