Dam Complicated

How have dams changed our relationship with the North Saskatchewan River?

In February, Taproot Edmonton helped present a live recording of local history podcast Let's Find Out. The idea was to generate a whole season of questions about how humans and nature have shaped each other. Amandah van Merlin was one of the folks who came out, and she got curious about how dams on our watershed have affected our relationship with the river.

To explore her question, Let's Find Out host Chris Chang-Yen Phillips brought Amandah to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, to dig for files on the two dams upstream of Edmonton: the Brazeau Dam and the Bighorn Dam. They also met up with local writer Billie Milholland, author of Living in the Shed: Alberta's North Saskatchewan River Watershed.

Listen to the episode at LetsFindOutPodcast.com:

Further Reading

• Report an Archaeological Find in Alberta
• Calgary Power – 1958 – Draft Memorandum Re: Brazeau Project [Provincial Archives of Alberta Acc. 77.173 Box 11, Item 133b]
• Calgary Power invites newsmen to witness closing at Bighorn Dam [St. Albert & Sturgeon Gazette, August 16 1972]
• Why the Big Horn Dam Should Not Be Built [Provincial Archives of Alberta Acc. 79.152 Box 13 Item 93]
• Kootenay Assigned to Band? [Red Deer Advocate, February 10, 1973 – found in Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 5095356]

Taproot Edmonton is proud to be supporting the 2019 season of Let's Find Out.

Photos by Chris Chang-Yen Phillips.