A century ago, something arrived in Lac La Biche that would transform the community from a frontier outpost into an actual town-and that continues to breathe life into the settlement to this day.
A century ago, something arrived in Lac La Biche that would transform the community from a frontier outpost into an actual town-and that continues to breathe life into the settlement to this day.
It was the railway, which reached Lac La Biche in February 1915. In those days, it was named the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway and while it didn’ t become fully operational until July the following year, it still represented a turning point in northeastern Alberta’ s history.
“Before the railroad was here, Lac La Biche had been bypassed and was starting to dwindle,” said Ken Yackimec with the Lakeland Interpretive Society, which manages the Lac La Biche Regional Museum and Discovery Centre.
Before the railway was built, much of the trade in and out of the northernmost part of Alberta was routed along the Athabasca River-a chancy prospect at best because of rapids and unwelcoming terrain, Yackimec says.
“Getting into the Fort McMurray area was a bugger of a job,” he said.
Nevertheless, as the riverside settlement of Athabasca Landing grew and prospered, Lac La Biche’ s importance began to decline.
That all changed when a group of businessmen, with support and encouragement from the provincial government, formed the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Company in 1909. The original plan was to build a railway line connecting Edmonton to Fort McMurray, passing by Lac la Biche Lake’ s western end.
Before the tracks came anywhere near the Lakeland region, however, the railway caused enough of a stir in the provincial government that Premier Alexander Rutherford resigned.
“It was a railway that was really clouded in a lot of controversy,” said Hans Huizinga, board member and archivist for the Alberta Pioneer Railway Association. “It caused the downfall of a provincial government.”
Rutherford was forced to leave the government after his handling of the railway was called into question. The railway was in limbo for several years, until J. D. McArthur, one of the most notable names in the Lakeland’ s history, took over managing it.
McArthur revised the original plan so the new railway would pass through the actual settlement of Lac La Biche, which would revive the community as a trading centre.
“In a way, it was the machinations of the Hudson’ s Bay Company and J. D. McArthur that built the town,” Yackimec said. “(McArthur) was very much an entrepreneur. He made sure he ran the route close to good timber. In that respect, he almost made it pay for itself.”
The railway reached Lac La Biche in February 1915. McArthur’ s vision was to establish Lac La Biche as a tourism destination in northern Alberta, so he built the original Lac La Biche Inn, where the municipal building McArthur Place now stands, to coincide with the railroad’ s arrival.
“He looked at Lac La Biche as the Venice of the north,” Huizinga said. “So Lac La Biche was really in a top-notch area.”
In the same year that the railway finally reached Fort McMurray, 1919, the town of Lac La Biche was devastated by a massive fire.
“The only things left standing were the railway depot and the inn,” Huizinga said. The railroad itself suffered some damage, but Yackimec says a train plowed through the destruction to carry people out of danger.
In the years that followed, the provincial government reassumed control of the railway, since McArthur’ s financial situation was worsening and he couldn’ t sell it.
“The management wasn’ t the greatest so the government took it over,” Huizinga said. A partnership between Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railways was agreed to, but CN bought the other company’ s share in the 1980s.
During the Second World War, the railway was used to carry supplies and personnel from northern Alberta to the capital region, Yackimec says.
“In those years, the railroad was really vital to the war effort,” he said. “It was also used to haul all of the uranium that was used in the Manhattan Project. That all came from the Northwest Territories.”
Into the 1980s, before Highway 881 was built, the railroad remained the most surefire way to reach communities like Conklin and Janvier, Yackimec says. With all of the industrial activity in the oilsands region, the railway is enjoying a sort of renaissance, he says.
“Now it’ s sort of come back to life, hauling all sorts of stuff up to Fort McMurray,” he said.
So does the railway still mean a lot to the region’ s commerce?
“Amazingly, yes, it does,” said Ron Briscoe, president of the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce. “It’ s funny to think that a method of transportation that’ s over 150 years old is still being used regularly in 2015. There are other methods, but the trains keep on rolling. There’ s a reason why places like Lac La Biche have trains running through them. They were like the lifelines of the country at the time (when they were built).”
In recent years, Lac La Biche County has sought to move the railway away from the hamlet of Lac La Biche because of traffic and safety concerns. According to Yackimec, many people view the railroad as more of a nuisance than anything else, but the community shouldn’ t lose sight of the railway’ s sheer historical importance.
“Unfortunately, Lac La Biche hasn’ t been able to preserve many of the artifacts,” he said. The Lakeland Interpretive Society wants to call attention to the railroad’ s significance in a special way next year, which will be the 100th anniversary of the railway actually becoming operational.
"We’ re trying to think of a way to commemorate, with respect, what it meant to this community,” he said.
