EDMONTON 1927 



bluntness meant only that his work was of 

 more importance to him than any number of 

 medals. w F z 



Consult Jones's Thomas Edison; Dyer and 

 Martin's Edison: His Life and Inventions. 



Related Subjects. The importance of Edi- 

 son's work can be best appreciated through a 

 study of the following articles in these volumes : 

 Dynamo Nobel Prize 



Electric Light Talking Machine 



Electric Railway Telegraph 



Moving Pictures Telephone 



EDMONTON, ed'muntun, the capital of the 

 Canadian province of Alberta, one of the great 

 cities which have sprung' up on the western 

 prairies almost in a day. For more than a 

 century Edmonton was a trading post. It was 

 prosperous enough, considered as a trading 

 post merely, but it made almost no advance in 

 size or importance. During the closing years 

 of the nineteenth century there came a sudden 

 change, and from a cluster of buildings scarcely 

 worthy the name of village Edmonton was 

 transformed into an important town. In an- 

 other decade it became a great city with the 

 exception of Calgary, its rival to the south, the 

 largest between Winnipeg and the Pacific coast. 



It is a city with wide streets and boulevards, 

 with fine homes and substantial business blocks, 

 with banks, hotels, theaters, churches, colleges 

 and excellent public schools, with railways, 

 street cars and automobiles. In short, a city 

 with all the comforts and advantages of mod- 

 ern life blossomed forth from the little trading 

 post which stood on the banks of the Sas- 

 katchewan, a rendezvous for Indians and the 

 few white men who carried on the business of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company. From a popula- 

 tion of 1,200 in 1899, Edmonton jumped to 

 2,626 in 1901, to 24,900 in 1911 and to an 

 estimated total of about 70,000 in 1914. The 

 War of the Nations made heavy calls on the 

 city's population, which in 1916 was 53,794. 



Location and General Description. Edmon- 

 ton lies slightly south and east of the geo- 

 graphical center of the province, but is well to 

 the north of the center of population. The 

 preponderance of population in the south and 

 south center, due to earlier railway develop- 

 ment in these sections, has caused Edmonton 

 to be considered as situated far north, but in 

 reality it is well within the southern half of 

 the province. It is about as far north of the 

 equator as Berlin, Germany, and is slightly 

 farther north than London, England. The city 

 lies on the banks of the North Saskatchewan 

 River, which at this point has cut a valley 



EDMONTON 



200 feet deep and nearly a mile wide. The 

 river itself is nearly 700 feet wide. On the 

 table-land which overlooks the thickly-wooded 

 river valley lies Edmonton. Edmonton South, 

 that portion of the city south of the river, was 

 formerly a separate city, called Strathcona. but 

 since February, 1912, has been incorporated as 

 a part of Greater Edmonton. 



The Basis of Edmonton's Growth. The Sas- 

 katchewan River is navigable for steamers from 

 Edmonton to a point about four miles above 

 its mouth in Lake Winnipeg, a distance of 

 about 850 miles. A series of rapids at that 

 point breaks the course of navigation and has 

 retarded the development of river traffic. Ed- 

 monton's prosperity is due largely to the rail- 

 ways. The Canadian Pacific, the first railway 

 to cross the prairies, ran through Calgary, 194 

 miles to the south, and it was not until 1891 

 that a branch was extended from Calgary 

 northward. This branch stopped at South Ed- 

 monton, on the south bank of the Saskatch- 

 ewan. The Canadian Northern, the first 

 railway to reach Edmonton proper, arrived in 

 1905, and in 1910 came the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific. Two other railways, not yet completed, 

 will open new territory tributary to Edmon- 

 ton and also provide additional lines to the 

 Pacific coast; these are the Edmonton, Dun- 

 vegan & British Columbia and the Alberta A 

 Great Waterways railways. By the shortest 

 rail routes Edmonton is 793 miles northwest 

 of Winnipeg and 773 miles northeast of Van- 

 couver. 



Industries and Commerce. Edmonton is 

 both a manufacturing and a commercial center. 

 Its chief industrial plants are slaughter- and 

 packing-houses, lumber mills, flour milU, foun- 

 dries and machine shops. Coal mining, near 

 the city and even within the city limit*, has 

 grown to great proportion.*. To a largo degree 

 the city trades in the products of its nulls and 

 factories, but it is also a largo distributor of 

 machinery and other supplies for the mines 

 and farms. Edmonton is the natural commer- 

 cial center for the valley of the Peace River 

 (which see). It is also one of the world's great- 

 est fur markets, being the headquarters of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, of Revillon Freres. * 

 great French firm, and other smaller organiza- 

 tions. 



Conspicuous Features. The city is a noted 

 educational center, the chief institutions bring 

 the University of Alberta (which sec), and 

 Robertson and Alberta colleges, which aro affil- 

 iated with the University, and the Jesuit and 



