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Coal, oil and industry

Farming

When R.P. Ottewell's oat crop of 1882 came in at over 100 bushels per acre, he proved to the world the potential for this area. In 1901 Thomas Daly of Clover Bar won first prize for his oats at the Paris Exposition. He also grew the first apples in Alberta.

George Ball of the Salisbury District was elected president of the Dominion Sheepherders Association, and won many prizes for his Suffolk sheep. George Uren from the Bremner District won various prizes for his registered shorthorn cattle, as well as his draft horses. Charlie Bremner won Dominion prizes for his clydesdales.

A.R. Gillies came to the Clover Bar area in 1910 from Ontario. He specialized in Yorkshire swine, short horned cattle and poultry, raising up to 5,000 chickens. He and his brother did germination and hybridization experiments which produced seed grains with shorter growing seasons, and other necessary qualities suitable for our northern climates.

The threshing crews

Working on the threshing outfits provided outlets for homesteaders either as a source of income or helping to pay their own threshing bill.

The Colonization Company sold their steam threshing outfit to R.P. Ottewell who worked as the engineer on the crew.
Further south Wallace Ball ran the threshing machine while his brother Willie, was the engineer. They had a crew of 18 men harvesting in the Salisbury - Wye Districts.
In North Clover Bar, in 1904, Walter Marler ran a steam outfit for his father, Sam.
Further east, in the Partridge Hill district, Virgil Lawrence ran a steam powered threshing outfit for 18 years. The steam engine is now to be seen in the Fort Saskatchewan Museum.
The Josephburg district was well supplied with steam engines and threshing outfits with John Burg and Alex Schneider both running large outfits.
The East Clover Bar and Ardrossan areas were looked after by several outfits including the crew of Mitchel Hanlan, Sr. - crew of 20 men who often worked to mid-December, custom threshing.
In the Colchester and Ellerslie areas, the Henschel brothers, and Otto and Ludwig Schiewe were two of the large outfits.

Dairy farming

Meanwhile, as Edmonton's population grew, the demand for fresh milk products increased. Strathcona and Clover Bar farmers quickly started to increase their herds to fill this need. People like Syd Ottewell and others in the Bremner district had built up large enough dairy herds to require the building of a butter and cheese factory in the district in 1906. It was the Colchester - Salisbury District that was eventually to be nick-named the Dairy Belt of Alberta.

Before 1910, Herman Graunke, Adolf Job and Fred Fuhrhop had started delivery of milk from their dairy herds. Later Henry Fuhrhop, John Fried, Emil and David Paul, Adolf Hoppe and Robert Simpson joined them. By mid-century, the Seutter families, Stannard brothers, Hipkins, Wannacotts and Grays had producing herds.

William Christie of the Colchester District, over a 12 year period, won the Alberta Department of Agriculture Provincial Trophy for butterfat production ten times. The Stannard brothers also won various competitions.

At one time four milk and cream purchasing dairies were found in Strathcona County between seventeenth street and fiftieth street. Henry's Dairy, Fitt's Dairy, Bracky's Dairy and Gibb's (Blindline) Dairy were all needed to prepare milk, cream and butter for consumption in the City of Edmonton.

The sawmills

Another industry in the Beaver Hills with its rich old forests (as the fires did not burn down all of the trees), were the sawmills.

R.P. Ottewell in partnership with Alex Rea ran two mills, one near the west end of Cooking Lake and the second on the north side of Old Man Creek, just south of the present Yellowhead Highway. Mr. Ottewell was the engineer and Mr. Rea the sawyer.
Elk Island Park was rich in poplar, tamarack and spruce so about the turn of the century, Mr. Alex Kelsey of Ypres Valley set up a mill attracting settlers bringing logs from miles around. The Kelsey Mill squared logs and cut roofing lumber.
Ludwig Prochnau of Josephburg designed and built his own lumber mill in 1918. It remained in use until 1970.
The John Ball family (John Sr. & Sons) ran three mills at varying times around Cooking Lake, along the Pembina River, and lastly on John Balls' homestead where Sherwood Park stands today.
Where South Cooking Lake village is now, Mr. Chadwick established a mill around 1900 using the heavily timbered forests around it for wood supplies.
Bill Stewart set up a steam-powered mill further south near Ministik Lake which ran from 1902 to 1912.

Coal mining

Coal mining was another employment opportunity for some homesteaders.

Enoch Caverhill started an early coal mine in the 1890's south of the North Saskatchewan River.
The Keith and Fulton Mine opened in 1902, and the Daly and Lindsay Mine later that same year.
The Great West Coal Company started in 1903, and employed up to 200 miners.

All of these were located south of the North Saskatchewan River between Hwy 14 and 17 street.

The Fraser - McKay Mine opened in 1904 (Byers Brothers), and closed in 1941.
The Ottewell Coal Company No. 1 also opened in 1904, and employed up to 30 men.
The largest producing mine in the Edmonton area was the Black Diamond Mine, from 1903-1952. The entrance to this mine was just to the south of Strathcona Science Park exhibits building entrance.
The Marcus Coal Company (1917-1940) was located just south of Highway 16 east, near the Alberta Research Council, and employed up to 115 men.
The new Ottewell mine (1932-1950) produced more than 10,000 tonnes annually, and was located west of 34 Street and south of the Baseline Road.
The Red Hot Mine (1931-1951) was also a good producer, and was located at the south side of the Capilano Bridge.
The last producing coal mine in Strathcona County was the Whitemud Creek Mine (1952-1970), and was found just north of Whitemud Freeway, at the west side of the creek.