ELK POINT - As a new chapter of history unfolds before us on a daily basis, Elk Point historian Marvin Bjornstad is using his time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic to add a variety of new material to the Elk Point Historical Society website and its neighbours, which outline the history of the Lindbergh, Heinsburg and Ferguson Flats areas.
These sites were largely based on local history books created in the 1970s, but Bjornstad’s collection of miscellaneous files collected since 1976 has grown steadily, and with time now available, he has found numerous items of interest to add to all four sites. He hopes to find even more historical material to add, and invites anyone who has information or photos they want to add to the websites to email him at marvinbjo@gmailcom “and we will get it done.”
The Elk Point update begins with a photo collection given to the Elk Point Historical Society (EPHS) by Harry Day. In 1907 An Anglican minister who had recently married travelled to Fort Simpson NWT to take up a new post. His photos of the journey and his time with local people were collect by Michael O’Neil in 1990 and given to the NWT Archives who catalogued them and returned them to the EPHS. The Days returned in 1910 to the Vermilion area and later farmed, ministered and played a very active role in the Elk Point community until Harry Day’s death in 1964.
Other new additions are Elk Point area, Lindbergh area and Ferguson Flats area homestead maps that the EPHS created for the F. G. Miller book, ‘Elk Point Homesteaders’, published several years ago by the historical society. These maps were created from F. G. Miller’s writings and from a federal Ottawa website that listed who originally obtained the patent on each quarter of land.
From Deanna Easthope’s 1998 book: ‘County of St Paul’s Graveyards’, the website previously included a number of listings for the Mooswa Cemetery at Lindbergh, the Ferguson Flats Cemetery and Primrose Cemetery. Bjornstad says he “hopes we can update this someday.” A PDF list is now attached and can be downloaded on the page.
From Heinsburg, “We have just added the monthly reports of Sergeant W. J. Hall, who served the Onion Lake NWMP detachment from 1887, just after the North West Rebellion, to 1909. The reports show a bit about what life on the post was like in these early years.” Included are reports from 1909 when Sgt. Hall was about to retire and wrote descriptions of remains found at Frog Lake just after the Rebellion, and background information from the Tulliby Lake history books about the Hall family who remained in the area.
To see the details of these new additions, as well as the huge collection of previous material, please visit the websites at elkpointhistory.ca , lindberghab.ca , heinsburg.ca , and fergusonflats.ca .
