Frontier Signal. — 1914-1916. — 3.5 cm of textual records.
Agency History
The Frontier Signal was established by W.A. Rae, the Liberal candidate for the Peace River district in the 1913 provincial election, because he felt the Grande Prairie Herald was biased and influenced by the local conservative politician, Alphaeus Patterson, whose son-in-law, W.C. Pratt, owned the Grande Prairie Herald. The first issue appeared on September 28, 1914 with G.R. Wilson as the manager and editor, a position he held for the life of the newspaper. Many of Wilson’s editorial pieces are from a Liberal point of view and in pointed opposition to Patterson. The Frontier Signal ceased production for unknown reasons in 1916. The last edition ran on August 10th.
Custodial History
These issues of the Frontier Signal were collected by Isabel Campbell and deposited at the Grande Prairie Public Library some time before her death in 1998. In 2015, the Grande Prairie Public Library passed the records on to the South Peace Regional Archives.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of 86 issues of the Frontier Signal from the first issue on September 28, 1914 to the last issue on August 10, 1916.
The content consists of local and general news, telegraphic war news, editorials and opinion pieces, farm and animal information, and advertisements from local businesses.
This fonds contains most issues of the Frontier Signal, excluding the following issues:
1914- Oct. 22, Nov. 5, Dec. 24
1915- Oct. 14, Oct. 21
1916- Feb. 3, July 6, July 13
Notes
Acquisition note: Accession 2015.032
Historical note: Information for Agency History taken from: Alberta Newspapers, 1880-1982: An Historical Directory by Gloria Strathern; Grande Prairie: Capitol of the Peace by Isabell Campbell;