The land Harry Adair chose for “Sunset Ranch” had one significant feature: the Canadian Northern Railway Survey on its southern border. A rancher with the big plans Adair had needed to get his products to market. On October 10, 1914, he left for the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton with a petition containing 1000 signatures asking for a railway to Grande Prairie. Three days later, a telegram announced he was at Ottawa, having taken the petition there as well. “Harry always was known for his traveling speed,” concludes the article, “but this one certainly is a record breaker.”
The result was that Adair spent two months in Ottawa promoting the railway. At first he was hopeful, as his Oct. 18th telegram below shows, but by 1915, he had focused his hopes on other railways. Who knows how much of his influence brought the Edmonton, Dunvegan & British Columbia Railway here in March 1916?
