This episode: The Great Apartment Caper. Pamela Learmond asks me to help her verify whether her grandpa Mike Ewasiw really had an entire apartment building moved down 97 Street.

Seriously, listen to the whole episode before you read any of the bonus material below. You’ll be glad you did.

Our first stop trying to verify this story was the Legislature Library, which has issues of the Edmonton Sun dating back to April 2, 1978.

Anyone can get a card and borrow books for free from the Legislature Library (after you get through the metal detector). They collect books on law, history, environmental issues, politics, and basically anything else that might prove useful for MLAs to read. They keep copies of newspapers all around Alberta, and they also keep a record of goings-on in the Legislature.

The jewel of their collection, in my opinion, is the hamburger that MLA Clarence Copithorne tabled for debate in the Legislative Assembly in 1969. It recently popped up in the news again.

Clues and evidence we talked about in the podcast:

• The page from Pamela’s aunt’s Fall 1981 photo album
• Aerial photograph of the area in 1980, showing the building at 11920 97 Street (Foto Flight Ltd.)
• Aerial photograph of the area in 1984, showing the building at 11835 97 Street (North West Survey Corporation International Ltd.)

And it’s worth seeing every one of these pictures:

• Pamela meeting Ed Marusyn and Marwin Marsten
• Ron Mix, of Mix the Mover, in a newspaper article
• A newspaper clipping of Mix the Mover taking a grain elevator down the highway
• Moving a butane sphere (Mix the Mover)
• Tipping a grain elevator on its side (Mix the Mover)
• Moving an oil tank in 1984 in Calgary (Mix the Mover)
• Moving a church from Vegreville to Ukrainian Village (Mix the Mover)
• Moving a water tower from Lloydminster to Kitscotty in 1976 (Mix the Mover)
• Mike Ewasiw’s apartment building up on jacks (Mix the Mover)