2017/18 Edson and Area Visitors Guide 2017 Visitor Guide electronic | Page 7

Edson received its first passenger train on August
10,1910. In 1911, the people of Edson placed a
request to the Post Master General to have the
post office renamed from Heatherwood — a
name it had carried for about a year — to Edson,
in honour of Edson J. Chamberlain, the then
general manager of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway.
On September 21, 1911, Edson was officially
incorporated as a town and by 1912, the
population had nearly tripled to a staggering
1,233 people and 32 local businesses.
Edson was born of the railway, during the height
of transcontinental rail construction heading
toward BC. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP)
was ferrying hundreds of railway workers west
and initially it looked as if Wolf Creek would be
the established divisional point. However, Wolf
Creek fell victim to real estate speculators and
the GTP refused to pay their overinflated prices.
Instead, the GTP moved the divisional point eight
miles west, to the home of modern day Edson.
For all its prosperity, Edson also became a hotbed
for unlawful activities that followed many frontier
towns.
In the spring of 1913, a fire claimed the wholesale
liquor store building and another fire consumed
the Old Edson Hall. It was a night of destruction
that demolished much of Edson’s ‘Red Light’
district. The fire and a later riot would prompt the
hiring of the Royal North West Mounted Police
to patrol the streets and bring order back to the
community.
With law and order in place, families came to
settle the area, encouraged that they would be
safe and protected from the lawlessness following
the rail construction.
By 1920, the town had power, water, sewer
systems and a telephone switch board. Soon
Edson had a dentist, long distance service and
improvements made to the postal service, along
with better roadways in and out of town.
These economic foundations stayed strong
throughout Edson’s history and were augmented
by an extended forestry industry, trap lines, oil
and gas development, coal developments to
the south, and dynamic small businesses that
continue to flourish in Edson today.
www.gallowaystationmuseum.com
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