Edmonton City as Museum Project ECAMP

On May 24, 1924, the Edmonton Journal reported that a new factory opened in Calder. It held a “unique” industry, one that the author of the article had never seen before. Using meat from Buffalo National Park, the Dominion Government Pemmican factory was poised to be the supplier of pemmican to northern communities.

A common misconception is that Edmonton’s first Chinese settlers were fleeing an anti-Chinese mob in Calgary, centred around an incident involving a laundry worker with smallpox. In truth, they arrived two years earlier. But the true story and the myth both point to the importance of laundries in the lives of Edmonton’s first Chinese immigrants.

Stephanie Harpe says she got a lot of things from her dad Henry, including a wicked work ethic and a positive outlook on life.

Stephanie is a musician and advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Henry grew up in Fort McMurray before the oil boom. Their family was Metis, and did a lot to support other families in town. As oil sands mining ramped...