Southern Alberta's Historic Windpower Interpretive Centre

I grew up in central Alberta where windmills aren’t a common sight, so they are a novelty to me. On a recent trip through southern Alberta where hundreds of windmills once dotted the landscape, I visited the Historic Windpower Interpretive Centre in the tiny village of Etzikom. The centre has dozens of windmills all in one place!

A paved walking path guides you through the grounds and past a variety of windmills that were manufactured in Canada and the U.S. from the late 1800s to mid 1900s. There are more types of windmills than I imagined. There’s even a vaneless windmill. I didn’t think such a thing was possible.

On the prairies, windmills were used for many purposes – pumping water to fill steam locomotives or supply farms, grinding grain and powering other types of machinery. Plaques along the path relate the history of the various types of windmills and explain the science behind them.

Whether you want to learn about windmill history in Alberta or just look at pretty windmills, the Historic Windpower Interpretive Centre is worth a visit.

Cool Storage

Storage rooms don’t normally top the list of cool things. But that would change if everyone’s storage rooms were as fascinating as the ones at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Behind the door that says “Staff Only” is a treasure trove of storage rooms that house many of the museum’s artifacts. During Edmonton Historic Week the museum offers behind the scenes tours that allow the public a glimpse at items that aren’t displayed. We toured two of the rooms that store items from the Western Canadian History collection.

In the home entertainment room we saw the progression of musical entertainment from something called an Orchestral Regina (a cross between a jukebox and a music box that played large metal discs), to a 1928 jukebox with only eight songs to choose from, to vintage radios dating from the 1920s to 1950s. Other highlights were the 1948 Philco black and white TV with a nine inch screen and a radio handmade from scrounged parts by a POW in a World War II internment camp near Lethbridge.

The artifacts in the medical room span diverse disciplines such as pharmacy, surgery, dental, and veterinary medicine. We saw x-ray machines and foot-powered drills that looked like something out of an old Hollywood horror movie. The really scary thing was that this equipment was in use from 1900 to the 1950s! No wonder people were so scared to go to the doctor or dentist. The coolest item was one of the first heart-lung machines used for open heart surgery in the late 1960s.

The curator leading our tour promised that next year the tour will offer a sneak peak of the domestic collection which includes household items like children’s toys, prams, sleds and furniture. Sign me up. That’s a storage room I’d like to spend some time in.

Park It

July 17 is Canada Parks Day and that got me thinking about Alberta’s many parks. Alberta has hundreds of parks and wilderness areas representing diverse landscapes and offering a variety of activities for people to enjoy.

The jaw-dropping scenery in Alberta’s wild spaces is a big attraction. Mountains, foothills, forests, grasslands, and strange rock formations – Alberta has it all. Even sand dunes! On the eastern side of the province is the Wainwright Dunes and in the northeast corner is the Athabasca Dunes Ecological Reserve which is part of the largest active sand dune system in Alberta.

Alberta’s lakes, reservoirs and rivers provide prime water sport opportunities. Wabumun Lake, Cold Lake and Waterton Reservoir are known for sailing and the province’s waterways provide a variety of boating, canoeing and kayaking routes. Many of Alberta’s lakes and rivers have outstanding fishing. Bow Valley Provincial Park has world-renowned trout fishing and the Oldman River and Kootenay Plains Provincial Recreation Areas contain over 30 species of fish. Alberta’s many lakes also mean many beaches. Two of the best are the beach at Sylvan Lake and Devonshire Beach on Lesser Slave Lake where they hold the annual Alberta Open Sandsculpture Championships.

Parks all over the province offer an endless variety of hiking trails. From meandering rivers and prairie that seems to go on forever, to forests that blanket much of the province, to mountain views and waterfalls, Alberta’s trails pass through all kinds of terrain and offer activity levels ranging from easy to more challenging.

Alberta’s parks are also home to an abundance of wildlife. Northern Alberta is known for amazing bird watching opportunities. Of the approximately 330 bird species in Alberta, 224 have been seen in Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park, the threatened Trumpeter Swan can be found in Saskatoon Island Provincial Park and tiny songbirds migrate through the area around Lesser Slave Lake. Parks in the mountains, foothills, and prairies offer the chance to spy larger animals like bears, moose and cougars.

History can also be explored in Alberta’s parks. Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park contains hundreds of Aboriginal pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (carvings) and Dinosaur Provincial Park allows visitors to hike to world-famous dinosaur bonebeds and even participate in an authentic fossil dig.

When you want to escape to nature, where do you go? What are your favourite Alberta parks and wilderness areas? What is your favourite activity to do in Alberta’s parks? Let me know by making a comment at the bottom of the post.

If Neighborhoods Could Talk

How often have you driven through a neighborhood and wondered what the stories were behind the area’s houses, shops, churches and parks? Edmonton Transit’s Historical Transit Tours give you the chance to learn about many of Edmonton’s historical neighborhoods while riding on a vintage bus dating back to the 1960s.

This summer you have the choice of four different routes. The Rossdale route reveals the neighborhood’s significant historical developments including the site of Edmonton’s first mosque. The Strathcona route highlights the university and many businesses in Old Strathcona, while the Glenora and Highlands routes focus on the beautiful heritage homes.

Knowledgeable tour guide Doug Cowan describes how the neighborhoods have changed over the years, points out the former sites of historic buildings now demolished, explains architectural details and shares stories about some of the original owners.

Four to five tours are scheduled each week from July 11 to August 6 with a variety of afternoon and evening departures. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased from Tix on the Square. Tours leave from the north side of City Hall – just look for the silver bus with the big windows (the bus’s distinctive appearance gives it the nicknames fishbowl and silverside).

Participate in one tour … or all four and satisfy your curiousity about Edmonton’s historic neighborhoods.