Sketching History: River Valley and Green Spaces

Edmonton's River Valley wasn't always an important part of our identity. Some of our present day beloved natural areas used to be garbage dumps, including Grierson Hill, Gallagher Park Hill, Dawson Park, Hawrelak Park, and Mill Creek Ravine. The river valley and ravines were also populated by industry: garbage incinerators, coal mines, lumber yards, brick factories, meat-packing plants and gravel pits.

In the 1920s, concerned Edmontonians such as Gladys Reeves lobbied and volunteered to recover and preserve our city’s river valleys and ravines. They also helped to beautify our neighbourhoods through the efforts of the Horticultural and Vacant Lot Garden Association and the Edmonton Tree Planting Committee.

Dr. James Brander was the peony advocate for Edmonton. If you live anywhere from Vancouver to Winnipeg and have peonies in your garden, they are very likely descendants of peonies from his Silver Heights Peony Garden.

Both James and his father George who helped manage the peony garden as a retirement project, had an avid interest in horticulture. Dr. Brander purchased 5 acres of land in the Bonnie Doon neighbourhood and established his garden there in 1921. It was located between 84 and 96 Streets, and 92 and 94 Avenues. As the garden grew, cut flowers and peony roots were sold to retail outlets across western Canada.

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, New Yorker Lynn Welcher, a builder of roller coasters in Canada and the United States, arrived in Edmonton to construct the big wooden roller coaster The Green Rattler and The Old Mill, better known as The Tunnel of Love.

A May 7, 1915 Edmonton Bulletin article stated, “Mr. Welcher who owns riding devices on some of the larger exhibition grounds … was induced to come to Edmonton by Manager Stark of the Edmonton Exhibition. Edmonton has been lacking in clean outdoor forms of amusement… and the establishment of this roller coaster is the first step.”