A moment in history: Sept. 11, 1976

On this day in 1976, the rapidly expanding south Mill Woods area was about to finally get direct mail delivery.

Residents of the newly developed area qualified for home delivery, but Canada Post said it didn't have enough letter carriers to serve them until September of that year. The Edmonton-Mill Woods Committee Against Post Non-service kept up the pressure and eventually declared "an outstanding victory."

Although the residential area we know as Mill Woods began in the early 1970s, its story is much older.

In the late 1870s, members of the Papaschase band were living on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River and trading with the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Edmonton. In 1877, Chief Papaschase and his brother signed an adhesion to Treaty 6, under which the Crown undertook to establish reserve land for the band, promising annual payments, farming implements and seeds, famine relief, and a medicine chest. Chief Papaschase chose land that overlaps with much of present-day Mill Woods. The federal government did not begin surveying until 1880. The proposed reserve was reduced from 48 square miles to 40 after officials used a lower membership count, partly by placing dozens of people associated with the band on a separate treaty pay list as the "Edmonton Stragglers."

While the reserve was being surveyed and in the years that followed, European settlers exerted pressure to free up the land for further settlement. Frank Oliver, publisher of Edmonton's first newspaper, used his platform to pressure Ottawa to obtain the reserve's surrender. Meanwhile, the Papaschase faced hunger and severe hardship amid the collapse of the bison economy and inadequate treaty support. Many members withdrew from the treaty in exchange for Métis scrip, much of which was quickly acquired by speculators at discounted prices. In 1888, three members of the band signed a surrender, an act whose validity remains disputed to this day.

The land was sold off and used primarily for agriculture. Many of the settlers were Moravians, German-speaking Protestants who had left Russian territories in search of religious freedom and farmland in the late 1800s.

The area remained mainly agricultural until the 1970s. In 1969, the provincial government began secretly buying up properties in the area to create a land bank, which it then sold to the city over time. The plan was to increase the supply of serviced residential land, control escalating housing costs, and guide Edmonton's outward growth.

In 1971, the city approved its plan for Mill Woods, which it described as a city within a city. The concept called for an experiment in a socially planned community, developing the 6,000-acre area over two decades, controlling costs, and providing amenities and social spaces. The first lots in the new Mill Woods development would go up for sale, with buyers chosen by lottery, at the end of that year.

The 1970s saw explosive growth in the new residential area. When new lots opened up in 1973, there were reports of more than 100 people waiting overnight at City Hall for a chance to purchase them. By 1978, 33% of Edmonton's population growth was happening in the Mill Woods neighbourhoods. The timing of that growth also led to the diversity of the Mill Woods population. In the 1960s, Canada reformed its immigration system. The following decades saw increased waves of immigrant and refugee arrivals that brought thousands of new residents from India, Uganda, Chile, Vietnam, and many other countries, shaping the area's character. A huge swath of the world's cultures can be found within the borders of Mill Woods.

That rapid growth slowed in the 1980s due to an economic downturn in the province. While no longer seeing the dizzying growth that it had when it was first developed, the area would still be among the largest cities in Alberta if it were an independent municipality. And residential development continues. On Aug. 25, the federal government announced a $51.2-million low-cost loan for Gilbertson Block, a 199-unit purpose-built rental project in Mill Woods. Meanwhile, much of Mill Woods lost home mail delivery in 2014, replaced by community mailboxes.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.