Travel is the theme as we take a look at what a trip to Grande Prairie looked like for people in the surrounding area, also an ad about the the stage that traveled to Edson in the year 1914.
“Eventful Trip” is a bit of an understatement, describing a 14 hour trip from Hythe to Grande Prairie, taken from the Grande Prairie Herald Jan. 24, 1930.
Complaints heard recently about the difficulties of getting around because of the road conditions take on a different perspective on reading this account of a group of hockey and broom ball players from Hythe heading to Grande Prairie for a Saturday night game. The writer even refers to the infamous Coca Cola ad about the snowy Peace River Country. While the account is cheerfully written, it may be that it was one of those experiences that was more fun when talking about it after, than it was at the time.
The item for this week in 1914 is the ad for the Grande Prairie – Edson Stage. Leaving Wednesday evenings, the stage arrived in Edson the following Tuesday. Pretty hard for us to imagine that trip taking over 6 days. What was particularly interesting I thought, was that in that same newspaper, mention was made of at least 13 people who had been or were making that trip, and the week before 11 people. The early residents of the area were intrepid travelers, to say the least!
