Category: Movie Monday

Image: A film still showing a group of children on a dock (SPRA 0198.02.04, Fonds 198: Ward-Marcy family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

Today we are featuring the final Movie Monday film. It is rather a bittersweet moment, but we hope you have enjoyed this project as much as we have enjoyed sharing it with you! This final film comes from the Ward-Marcy family fonds and was filmed in 1964.

Miles and Marion Marcy and their five children (Ken, Marilynne, Greg, Kevin, and Colleen) have been featured in six of our Movie Monday posts. We have traveled with them, watched Miles’ work at the lumber mill, and in this film see footage of camping, farm work, getting bulls ready for a show, and more. Because the Marcy family has had a significant presence on our blog throughout this past year, we thought you might enjoy hearing what happened to the family in later years.

Ken, the oldest of the Marcy children, spend much of his life in the gardening business. He married and had a daughter, and passed away in 2006. Marilynne, the second Marcy child, became a certified nursing assistant and in 2008 was in her 38^th year of working at the Grande Prairie hospital. She and her husband, Mike Turner, married in 1970 and raised three children. Greg Marcy became a teacher and together with his wife, Laurie, had two children. As for the youngest Marcy children, Kevin became a drummer, and Colleen a skating instructor, LPN, and mother of two children.

Miles Marcy died in 2000, and Marion remarried John Yurychuk in 2005. In 2012, at the age of 85, she also passed away.

It is the donation of textual records, photographs, and films such as the Marcys’ that make the work of the Archives possible. Through these glimpses into the everyday lives of local individuals, we can better understand how the region came to be what it is today.

We will miss sharing Movie Mondays with you, but remember that you can watch all the featured films (and many more!) on our YouTube channel at any time. Thank you for following along with Movie Monday and for your ongoing support of the South Peace Regional Archives.

Image: A film still showing a man in a treehouse cache (SPRA 0253.01.11, Fonds 253: Jerry Stojan family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

Of the many boating excursions that have been shared over the course of Movie Monday, most have included only one or two boats. But in this film, a significantly larger party of vessels and men is seen embarking on an expedition. Given Jerry Stojan’s interest in big game hunting, it is safe to assume that this footage is from a hunting trip.

A crowded boat launch is shown at the beginning of the film, followed by a cabin (perhaps some sort of hunter’s lodge), and a food cache. Caches, also known as bear boxes, protected hunters’ food supplies from being devoured by wildlife. In this case, the cache was a permanent structure that looked rather like a tree house. Where permanent bear boxes were not available, makeshift caches called bear bags could be constructed by simply hanging the supplies from a tree branch. However, if the bag was not hanging far enough from the branch, trunk, and ground, it would prove quite ineffective!

Check back next week for our final Movie Monday post!

Image: A film still showing the Dunvegan ferry (SPRA 253.01.04, Fonds 253: Jerry Stojan family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

Today’s film from the Jerry Stojan family fonds (ca. 1954) features several points of interest in the Peace Region, such as the Dunvegan ferry and the view from Twelve Foot Davis’ grave.

The Dunvegan ferry was installed by the provincial government in 1909. It consisted of heavy decking on top of two pontoons, and was connected to a cable that had been strung across the Peace River. It took approximately 30 minutes to cross the river on this ferry. In the 1940’s, the government replaced it with a power ferry. A suspension bridge was finally built in 1960, opening on August 31, and it continues to hold its status as Alberta’s longest vehicle suspension bridge. The power ferry was moved to Tompkins Landing, where it operated from 1961-1987; it is now on display at the La Crete Mennonite Heritage Village.

Like the Dunvegan crossing, Twelve Foot Davis is an icon of the Peace Region. Henry Fuller Davis was born in Vermont in 1820, and in 1849 he headed to California to search for gold. He wasn’t very successful, so he travelled north to the Cariboo gold fields. By the time he got there, most of the prime land had already been staked out. But despite being unable to read or write, he was well aware of the laws regarding the size of claims, and he soon found a way to get his own piece of land. On Willow Creek, two miners had established lucrative claims adjacent to one another and Davis noticed that they were wider than the prescribed 100ft per claim. He approached the commissioner and asked for a legal re-surveying, and indeed, together the two claims measured at 212ft wide. Davis quickly claimed those extra 12 feet, from which he extracted between $20,000 to $30,000 of gold – about half a million dollars in today’s currency. Eventually Davis came to the Peace River area, where he worked as a fur trader; forming alliances with French Canadian, Cree, and Metis traders, he competed against the storied Hudson’s Bay Company. He died in 1900 at Lesser Slave Lake Mission and in 1912 his remains were buried on Grouard Hill as part of a promise once made to him.

This film shows the Stojans crossing on the Dunvegan ferry and enjoying the views from Davis’ grave. There is also footage from a parade along Richmond Avenue, and many scenes of Chuck and Linda growing up on the farm.

Only two more weeks of Movie Monday to go! We have so enjoyed sharing these films with you and will be sorry to see the project come to an end. Be sure to stay tuned for the final two films!

Image: A film still showing a group of fishermen in the river (SPRA 1974.74.22E, Fonds 138: Griff James fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

As we have seen over the course of the Movie Monday initiative, swimming, boating, fishing, and hunting were some of the most popular pastimes in the South Peace during the 1950s and ‘60s; many films from that era focus largely on one or more of those activities. This film from the Griff James fonds includes footage of all of the above!

What is particularly special about this film is that it brings together two of Movie Monday’s most featured families – the Jameses and the Stojans. The families shared very similar interests, so it is not surprising to find that they enjoyed outings together. In this video, we see the children playing in the water, and various family members boating on the river. Interspersed among these shots of family outings are scenes of a forest fire and an airplane excursion.

At the end of the film we see fathers and sons hunting and fishing along the river; the James and Stojan parents were obviously eager to pass on their love for adventure and the outdoors to their offspring, and the children shown in the film seem happy to comply!

There are only three more Movie Monday posts to come, but remember that you can watch these films and many others on our YouTube channel!

Image: A film still showing Amy Garlinski as she introduces the Pioneer Experience Program (SPRA 0001.10.01.19, Fonds 001: Pioneer Museum Society of Grande Prairie & District fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

Not only is today Movie Monday, but it’s also Heritage Day! To celebrate the heritage of our province and our region, we thought it would be fun to share this 1995 tour of the museum, presented by young Amy Garlinski.

In 1995, the Pioneer Museum (now the Grande Prairie Museum and Heritage Village) hosted a program called the “Pioneer Experience Program,” geared largely towards elementary students. Participants would learn how to make butter, wash clothes, spin wool, and grind grain as the pioneers once did. This film served as an introduction to the program.

Amy does a wonderful job guiding her viewers through the museum and sharing facts that would be of particular interest to children her own age. The tour is brief, yet informative, as she speaks of the ingenuity the pioneers had to possess in order to survive. Handmade tools and dresses are shown, and listeners hear about the butter, soap, and ice cream that pioneers would have made at home (because what child won’t perk up at the mention of ice cream!).

This video would be an excellent resource for teachers and homeschoolers in the coming school year!

Image: A film still showing tourists panning for gold (SPRA 0198.02.09, Fonds 198: Ward-Marcy family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

Today’s Movie Monday brings our vacation series to a close. We’ve visited various provinces and states throughout the summer and will be concluding our journey with a visit to South Dakota. Today’s film is from the Ward-Marcy family fonds and was taken circa 1960. It includes scenes of children with puppies (or are they kittens?), children playing outdoors, and a vacation to the Badlands of South Dakota.

Badlands National Park covers 242,756 acres of land in southwestern South Dakota. Much like the Canadian Badlands, the rugged terrain is almost surreal with its pinnacles and gullies, spires and buttes. The Lakota people who inhabited the region were the first to call it mako sica, directly translated as “land bad”, for its extreme temperatures, harsh landscape, and lack of water. French-Canadian fur trappers referred to the land as les mauvais terres pour traverse – “bad lands to travel through”.

In the heart of this ‘bad land’ is a small community named Wall, often called the “Window to the West” or “Gateway to the Badlands”. The town boasts a number of famous tourist attractions, some of which appear in the Marcy family film. Perhaps the most well-known of the attractions is Wall Drug, a sprawling tourist mall that welcomes more than a million visitors every year. The store began as a tiny pharmacy in 1931 and drew in customers by offering free ice water. When the proprietor realized how a little advertising could bring in a whole lot of tourists, he began constructing signs all across the United States. At the peak in the 60s, when the Marcy family visited, Wall Drug boasted more than 3,000 highway signs. Though the building itself is not shown in the film, there is a close-up shot of a moving Wall Drug billboard announcing the store’s proximity – only 5 blocks away!

The Marcy family is also shown visiting the Reptile Gardens and 80-foot dinosaur statue in Wall, as well as the ghost town of Rockerville, where tourists appear to be panning for gold. The ghost town was sadly burnt down in a firefighting training exercise in December of 2016, which makes films such as this one all the more valuable for the preservation of history!

Thank you for travelling with us this summer, and we hope to see you back on Movie Monday next week!

Image: A film still showing Janus carrying some logs (SPRA 449.01.01, Fonds 449: Foster Family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

Today on Movie Monday we are sharing the earliest of the Foster family films. In this movie from June 1949, Raymond and Iva take their eldest two children, Janus and Ben, on a trip along the Alaska Highway. The family would travel the highway again in the ‘50s and in 1962 – trips fondly remembered by the children.

The Alaska Highway (originally known as the Alcan Military Highway) was constructed in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; both Canada and the United States suddenly saw an urgent need for a defence and supply route reaching the north. By March 9, 1942, the first train load of American troops had arrived in Dawson Creek, British Columbia to begin work on the highway. Though the US Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for much of the highway’s construction, 16,000 Canadian and American civilians were also involved, including a number of individuals from the Grande Prairie area. With such a massive crew working double shifts seven days a week, up to 13 kilometers of road could be completed in a day, and 643 kilometers were laid in the month of July alone. On November 20, 1942, after nine months of incessant labour, the Alcan Highway was officially opened, reaching from Dawson Creek (Mile 0) to Delta Junction, Alaska (Mile 1422).

In 1948, the road officially opened to the public for unrestricted pleasure travel. Permits were no longer required and campgrounds had been established at various locations by the Canadian Government, to be used free of charge. The Fosters, like many others, jumped at the chance to travel the famed highway and were among the first to do so as tourists. Today, more than 100,000 tourists travel the Alaska Highway annually.

Image: A film still of the Foster children enjoying carnival food (SPRA 449.01.10, Fonds 449: Foster Family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

Welcome back to Movie Monday! Today’s film will not take us as far from home as last week’s, but it will have an exotic feel nonetheless. We are traveling with the Foster family once again – this time to Arizona!

The Fosters visited Arizona in 1956, this time with four children in tow. Over the course of their trip, they visited many attractions in the Phoenix area, such as Montezuma Castle, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and the Tumacacori Spanish missions complex, established in 1691. Though the landscape seems dry and unforgiving in many scenes, we also see the family admiring flower fields in full bloom and picking luscious fruit along the way. The heat did not keep the Fosters from enjoying themselves as they embarked on hikes and picnics and attended a local carnival and parade. The parade would have felt quite familiar to the children, as parades were popular community events back home as well (and were often considered a spectacle worth filming). Like Grande Prairie parades, the one in Arizona included marching bands, floats, and people on horseback.

Ruth, the youngest of the Foster children, has not appeared in the other travel films we have featured from the Foster family fonds (having not yet been born), but in this video she is seen taking in the sights together with her siblings, and particularly enjoying the time spent playing in the water.

Image: A film still of Iva and Dwain Foster admiring fruit trees (SPRA 449.01.07, Fonds 449: Foster Family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie

Today’s Movie Monday takes us on the longest journey to be featured in our vacation series. Destination? Florida!

In 1952, Raymond and Iva Foster took their three young children on a holiday to the southern states. The trip took place over Christmas and extended into the new year, and the family appears to have found a happy balance between experiencing the area as tourists and living as locals.

In terms of enjoying ‘typical’ tourist activities, the Fosters visited attractions such the Kolomoki Mounds (an archeological site and recreational area in Georgia), a circus put on by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and the 1953 Motorama auto show. Having the ocean nearby would certainly have been a novelty for the Albertan family, and adults and children alike are seen reveling in the laid-back beach life.

In order to settle in and make the trailer park seem a little more like home, toys were set out for the children and potted plants were added as a finishing touch. And let’s not forget the Christmas tree! As hard as it is to believe, this footage of gorgeous sunshine and warm weather was taken over the Christmas holidays. Birthdays were also observed while in Florida, and the children appear to have no shortage of friends to celebrate and play with.

Image: A film still showing the Bennett Dam construction site (SPRA 0198.02.05, Fonds 198: Ward-Marcy family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

It’s time for another Movie Monday family vacation! This week we are visiting the Bennett Dam, located near Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia. Our featured film was taken by the Marcy family in the early 1960s, when the hydroelectric dam was in the beginning stages of construction.

The W.A.C. Bennett Dam, named after British Columbia’s then-premier, is one of the largest earthfill structures in the world; the reservoir is so immense that it can be seen from space. The building of the dam itself began in 1964, though the site already had been under construction for some years. Cat machines dozed together moraine for sorting, and conveyors transported the graded material to the dam site – both of these procedures can be seen in the film!

During the course of the dam’s construction, more than 100 million tons of gravel, sand, and rock were carried by dump trucks to the dam, and when construction was at its peak, more than 4,800 people were employed for the project. The construction of the dam was a long and complex process, but on September 28, 1968, power was generated from the project for the very first time. The dam celebrated its 50^th anniversary of operation in 2018.