John Walter

They had arrived at Fort Edmonton, a place that was about to be thrust into the great drama of Canada's Western expansion, though those three men may not have guessed it when they first spotted the fort. It had been operated by the Hudson's Bay Company since the late 1700s, and for much of the 19th Century it remained one of the most remote outposts of European civilization in North America. John MacDougal, a missionary who visited in the 1860s, described what Walter and his companions saw--and probably felt--when they arrived:
"This is a prominent place; has been on the map of Britain's empire for scores of years, has been a "station" in the Minutes of a large Conference for a long time. Are there any hotels? None. Are there any churches? One, a Roman Catholic. How many stores? One, the Hudson's Bay Company. What is the population? From twenty to one hundred and fifty; and in tones of bitter disappointment the sad traveler turns away with the despairing comment: "And this is the end of it all?"¹
The North Saskatchewan River bisected the Canadian prairies, and had long served as a highway and source of food for the nomadic and semi-nomadic bands of First Nations peoples who lived along its course. Rossdale in particular was a popular gathering place for many different bands who came to dry pemmican for trade, socialize with their kin, and engage in religious rituals.
Into this milieu stepped caucasian fur traders of the Hudson's Bay Company who sought to fill the insatiable demand for fur amongst Europe's fashionable classes. Fort Edmonton became their base. A witness described it:
"That post lived and stood and had its being in the collecting and shipping of furs. A large annual output of the skins and furs of many animals was its highest ambition. Towards this goal, men and dogs and horses and oxen pulled and strained and starved. For this purpose isolation and hardship, almost inconceivable were undergone…. Thirteen different peoples, speaking eight distinct languages, made this post their periodic centre. This was the halfway house in crossing the continent. Hundreds of miles of wildness and isolation were on either hand. About midway between and two thousand feet above two great oceans - unique, significant, and alone, without telegraph or postal communication..."²
The only way the HBC could make it worthwhile to go through the expense of sending someone here from Europe, was by hiring them on five year contracts. John Walter was one of those who signed on for this great adventure.

John Walter learned the importance of a diverse set of skills from his father, who was a boatbuilder, farmer, and miller. All roles he filled to support his family on the isolated and windswept Orkney Islands of northern Scotland. The HBC preferred to recruit from the Orkneys because of the hardy and versatile reputation of its inhabitants. Following in the footsteps of his father, the young John Walter apprenticed as a carpenter, then signed up for a life of adventure on the far side of the world with the HBC.
Walter had a genial presence. A photo of Walter, taken when he was in his 30s, shows a broad-shouldered, strong man with a prodigious, light-coloured beard. The impressiveness of his facial hair was off-set by a receding hairline, and a round, friendly face with clear, light-coloured eyes. ^{1 2}
His build was well-suited to life in Fort Edmonton where he started work repairing the massive York boats the HBC used to transport goods along the continent's riverine highway network. The York boats, a specialty of the Orkney men, were derived from the longships their Viking ancestors used for raiding, trade, and exploration. Sturdier and more versatile than the canoes favoured early in the fur trade, the York boats could also carry up to triple the payload.²
It wasn't long before John's impressive carpentry skills came in handy in constructing McDouglas Church. John began to make friends that would stay with him for the majority of his life. When his five year contract with the HBC began, the HBC era had already come to a close. The fur trade was all but tapped out, and growing settlement was inching further west all the time. Seeing the writing on the wall, the same year Walter arrived the HBC transferred the territory it controlled back to the British crown. As the HBC operations wound down in the 1870s, John started building scows on his own terms, under his own name. His boat-building business had begun.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Walter's business expanded and adapted. While the Walter Yard was primarily the home of John Walter's businesses, other entrepreneurs found opportunities in the surrounding areas and built brickyards and breweries. As Walter's mill employed new settlers, and his ferry transported people and goods, he cultivated his land, and operated a general store out of his own home. The very same home which was swiftly becoming the stage for various community events and gatherings. Eventually the community soon bypassed the small confines of the yard and Walter's sitting room as a vibrant and busy town was established.
Walter's ferry suited the needs of the little community, but due in part to Walter's efforts, the community was quickly outgrowing its capacity. The Low Level Bridge had been constructed in 1900, but didn't fully replace the need for the ferry. Edmonton needed a bridge to Strathcona. The High-Level Bridge was tough steel and above the high flood line. When it was completed in 1913 it finally put Walter's ferry out of business. The Edmonton Bulletin remarked nostalgically:
"The old landmarks of Edmonton are gradually passing away. This week the ferry service which has been supplied by John Walter Lumber Co. Limited for over thirty years, was discontinued for the winter, the old scow being taken out of the river preparatory to the freeze-up. The ferry service, it is expected, will be a thing of the past."¹
Walter wasn't bitter about the occasion, telling the Edmonton Journal “we took the scow out of the river and I hope to never use it again.”²
He had come a long way from repairing boats in the HBC days and in 1900, Walter's workshops built two river steamers, theStrathcona (rechristened the Scona) and the City of Edmonton. They hauled freight and passengers along a 200-mile stretch of the river, providing an essential service to the frontier’s early settlements. On weekends and holidays in summer, they also offered wildly popular holiday excursions that were remembered fondly by people living in Edmonton in those days.

In 1907, a fire broke out at the Strathcona Coal Company Mine, claiming the lives of six men. Walter was part owner and suffered not only financially, but was deeply affected by the loss of life. This accident was followed by two large floods and another fire. These successive disasters crippled Walter's business.
However, Walter's life did not entirely revolve around his business. In October 1886, John Walter had married Annie Elizabeth Newby, an Englishwoman who came to Canada employed as a nanny. They had two sons, John William Walter and Stanley Walter, and he even lived to see the birth of one grandson. Meanwhile, John Walter was deeply involved in community engagement and politics, as an Alderman for Strathcona, by serving on various community boards and even contributing to the eventual amalgamation of Edmonton and Strathcona. A fair employer, family man, and philanthropist, upon his death in December 1920, The Edmonton Bulletin praised him as someone who “lived and died without an enemy."¹
However, the ascent of John Walter and the growing city of Edmonton was not achieved without cost. The site on which Walter Yard was constructed was once an important site for local First Nations. After the signing of Treaty 6, that land became the property of the Federal government. Since time immemorial, the Cree, Blackfoot, Ktunaxa, Metis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, and many others used this land as they followed the herds of bison across the prairie.^{1 2}
Directly across the river from Walter's Yard was the site of the community's cemetery. In use from probably around the 1830s, the Fort Edmonton Cemetery was the site of both settler and traditional First Nations graves. In the late 1800s, the cemetery was abandoned due to its location on a flood plain. Some graves were exhumed and relocated to a new site, but few Indigenous ones were relocated. As the 20th century progressed, the site was disturbed in construction efforts on more than one occasion. During the construction of Rossdale Road, several graves were destroyed and the remains were subsequently collected by the University of Alberta.
The construction occurred despite the protests of some locals who were aware of the cemetery site. The act was another knife in the colonial wound of the First Peoples who had once used this land before being relocated to the Papaschase Reserve near Mill Woods on the south side of Edmonton. Even that reserve they were forced to abandon a few years later. The modern band is keenly aware of this loss, as well as the disturbance of the graves of their ancestors.
After a reconciliation ceremony, some of the remains were reinterred in a new site, and a memorial was installed in the early 2000s to commemorate the final resting place. After you cross the bridge to the next stop on this tour and proceed north towards the intersection of River Valley Road, look to your right and you will see the memorial. Take the time to stop and read the plaques.

John Walter was there when the old Fort Edmonton passed out of the hands of the HBC. He was one of the major players who joined Edmonton with Strathcona to make a city. While his business was staggering under the weight of a series of catastrophes, construction on the Alberta legislature commenced almost directly across the water.
In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan, previously part of the massive North-West Territories, became fully-fledged provinces in their own right. The borders of the new province of Alberta put Edmonton in a central location for rail transport. The new province needed a capital and Edmonton was chosen with little contention. The small city with a population of about 8,300 had become known as the 'Gateway to the North.'¹
However, if Edmonton was chosen as Alberta's capital, it was due to the work of several individuals, including John Walter, who built it up to become worthy of the title. Walter died in hospital after an operation for appendicitis, but not before he left his impressive legacy on the town he helped build and on the people who loved him. The Strathcona Evening Chronicle wrote: "There is no more progressive and public spirited citizen than John Walter. All in all he has probably done more for the city than another of its residents."²
John Walter represents the spirit of his time, and of the province he helped build. His story is one of an immigrant who came to a new land and built his own fortune from the ground up, all while using that success to guarantee the growth of the community around him. The Walterdale bridge and the neighborhood of Walterdale all carry his name.
However important it is to remember John Walter and his legacy, he is only one of several who contributed to the growth of what would become Alberta's foremost city. The fort was built by British, French, Métis, and First Nations fur traders. The land needed to support the growing fort was surrendered by First Nations groups struggling for agency in a situation where they were being crowded and starved out of their traditional ways of life. Edmonton was made possible by effort and by sacrifice. The cemetery memorial that stands steps away from this spot, lists the known names of those whose lives built Edmonton.