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Homecoming 1980 by Sally Jackson This Is he 75th anniversary of Alberta becoming a province They been busy and exciting years which will be celebrated In every city town and village throughout the year Visitors will have an unrivaled opportunity to join the stampedes fairs exhibits athletic events and pageants and see Albertans at their exuberant best Nothing small seems to happen in the Princess Province whether it s oil strikes vast fluids of grain or giant herds of cattle As they look back over the years they have many unique things to comma mo rate For example when the white men first came to the foothills they were met by the at the edge of a huge territory which stretched from mid Alberta to Yellowstone White traders hunters and who attempted to penetrate their land were harshly dealt with Yet in the end this ambitious and ferocious people capitulated to the threat of full scale war and gave themselves over to the while mans rule Like many an Indian race discovered too late that trade led to economic domination and even breakdown of a vigorous and successful Indian empire The long period of economic prosperity which reached its peak after the Hudson Bay Company founded Fori Edmon ton on the North Saskatchewan River in was succeeded by a rush for ranch land in the 60s and 70s A dec ade later the sod busters arrived in a rush and by the time the stampede for homesteads had reached Its peak In the 1890s large sections of the prov ince were already settled todays farmers and ranchers produce over one billion dollars In foodstuff an The Provincial Legislative Buildings now stand on the onglnal site of Fort dmonton But an reconstruction of this early trad ing post complete with a pioneer towns main street are open daily to visitors in nearby Fort Edmonton Park Be prepared to spend the best part of the day in this stimulating and brash restoration of frontier days Two hundred km southwest of at Rocky Mountain House stands all that remains of a string of fur trading forts established by the rival fur trading companies Hudsons Bay and the Northwest Company Now a Parks Canada his toric site contains replicas of the famous York boats and the Red River carts which brought settlers thousands of miles across the plains Pioneer missionaries and evangelists brought religion to Indians and settlers alike The original St Charles Mission established in has been restored as a museum with artifacts of all kinds can be seen at north of Grande Prairie on Highway At St Albert near Edmonton one of he oldest com mumties in the province the onginal R C log church built in 1861 still stands Traders from the south crossed the border near the Cypress Hills and set up in the 19th century a series of forts conduct a whiskey trade with the Indians A replca of one of the most notorious Fort Whoop up stands in Indian Battle Park on the outskirts of Visitors can see relics of a rowdy past in this museum The success of this trade aroused the federal government which founded the North West Mounted Police and dispatched them km on fool and on horseback to put a stop to it The new force which was eventually to the RCMP founded Fort just west of overlooking the Old Man River long in chasing the whiskey traders out of the try You can these evening days through a visit to fort which contains a fine museum he coming of the CPR which reached Calgary In 1881 really opemd up the country and by the time the young territory became a province in its population had reached one million Today modern prosperous and hustling Alberta is home to two millions If you would line more mfor nation concerning Alberta vacations in this homecoming year write A Tourism Capital Square 10065 Jasper Ave I dmonton Alta