Edson received its first passenger train on August
10,1910 and 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.
For all its prosperity, however, 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. That 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.
THE EARLY YEARS
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 the overinflated prices.
Instead, they moved the divisional point eight
miles west, to the home of modern day Edson.
By 1920, the town had power, water, sewer
systems and a telephone switch board. Soon,
there was a dentist, long distance service and
improvements made to the postal service, along
with better roadways in and out of Edson. 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.
www.gallowaystationmuseum.com
5