Amandah van Merlin asks how have dams changed our relationship with the North Saskatchewan River.
In February, we put together a live recording of Let’s Find Out. The idea was to generate a whole season of questions about how humans and nature have shaped each other. Amandah van Merlin was one of the folks who came out, and she got curious about how dams on our watershed have affected our relationship with the river.
To explore her question, we brought Amandah to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, to dig for files on the two dams upstream of Edmonton: the Brazeau Dam and the Bighorn Dam.
We also met up with local writer Billie Milholland, author of Living in the Shed: Alberta’s North Saskatchewan River Watershed.
The Mountain Legacy Project has amazing comparisons of the Big Horn area before and after the building of Bighorn Dam and creation of the Lake Abraham reservoir. Check out views from the north and east sides of the lake.
Further Reading:
- Report an Archaeological Find in Alberta
- Calgary Power – 1958 – Draft Memorandum Re: Brazeau Project [Provincial Archives of Alberta Acc. 77.173 Box 11, Item 133b]
- Calgary Power invites newsmen to witness closing at Bighorn Dam [St. Albert & Sturgeon Gazette, August 16 1972]
- Why the Big Horn Dam Should Not Be Built [Provincial Archives of Alberta Acc. 79.152 Box 13 Item 93]
- Kootenay Assigned to Band? [Red Deer Advocate, February 10, 1973 – found in Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 5095356]
This episode is made possible by support from Taproot Edmonton and the Edmonton Historical Board.
We also gave shout-outs in the episode to Overdue Finds and the Unheard Youth Podcast.
Let's Find Out 