History Bytes April 6, Alberta Fish Industry

Описание: History Bytes April 6, Alberta Fish Industry

My name is Sheila Willis of Impact Tourism, the developer of the History Check Mobile App. Welcome to History Bytes, your dose of Alberta Historical Trivia. Brought to you in partnership with Belt Drive Betty Media and the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association.

You can Register to answer the questions for a shot to win prizes or just take the quiz to satisfy your own brain power! Either way, we are excited to see how much of Alberta’s History you really know!

Last question was:

In the early 1920’s where was the primary market for whitefish from Lesser Slave Lake?

A Edmonton
B Winnipeg
C Chicago

Answer C Chicago

The lakes of northern Alberta have been a source of food for the Indigenous people since their arrival to the area. The name Kinuso, a small hamlet on Lesser Slave Lake. adjoining the Swan River First Nation is derived from the Cree word meaning fish.

Some fish were eaten fresh but others were dried and stored to eat later. It was also a source of food for the sled dogs which were vital to their movements.

In the late 1800’s commercial fishing began and the first commercial fishing license was issued in 1910 and 114 years later, in 2014 the Alberta government stopped issuing the commercial licenses.

The primary target for commercial fishing was Lake whitefish. It had a high market value because of its excellent quality when dried.

The first reference I have of whitefish heading to Chicago is in February 1906 when A.S. Brown of the Edson Fish Company shipped his first rail car of 33,000 pounds of fish that came from Lesser Slave Lake and was caught by the Athabasca Fish Company.

Remember this is before the railway so that load was brought by sleigh from Lesser Slave to Edmonton where it was shipped by rail. That's a lot of fish to be packing over trails.

In 1916 Rathbone Smith, the manager of the ED & BC Railway was promoting the fish industry and said that not only were fish being shipped to Chicago but also New York - and of course with the ED & BC Railway next to Lesser Slave Lake and the AG&W at Lac La Biche, it would be a side industry for McArthur’s rail lines to be shipping that fish down to Edmonton.

By the early 1920’s there was a LOT of fish being caught and shipped. 1.5 million pounds was the annual catch of whitefish being taken from Lesser Slave Lake and it generally took 90 railcars to ship it all to the Chicago market.

While Lac La Biche is mentioned as well it seems that Lesser Slave Lake was the primary source of the fish. In 1921 three were over 25 fishermen employed in the fishing industry in Lac La Biche and 150 employed at Lesser Slave Lake.

They were primarily after whitefish but pickerel, pike and other varieties were also being taken. In 1923 the fisheries officer closed the Lesser Slave Lake for a week recognizing that a limit might be needed.

In that year on the Lesser Slave there were four companies operating; McInnes Fish Company, Menzies Fish Company, Lakeside Fish Company, and Clark & Johnson and the catch was limited again to 1.5 million pounds of fish.

The newspaper articles about these big catches end by 1929 and it will take further research to see if the catch size was reduced or the market dried up.

One might ask themselves though what does one do with the cleanings of 1.5 million pounds of fish? Did you know there were once numerous mink farms on the shores of Lesser Slave Lake? Well that is another story for another day.

Next Question is:
In 1920 a train was held up in the Crowsnest Pass area. How many police officers gave their lives to capture the 3 fugitives?

A One
B Two
C Three

Come back for the answer and the story that goes along with it.
Then we will load you up with the next question.. Enjoy!

Research & Credits:
RAMP - Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program
http://www.ramp-alberta.org/resources...

Kinosayo Museum
https://www.kinosayomuseum.ca/

Peel’s Prairie Provinces; University of Alberta Libraries
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/

Provincial Archives of Alberta
https://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/

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historycheck.ca
impacttourism.ca
bkcnewsbytes.com
Motorcycletourism.ca

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