41074691•10/31/12


Historical book author’s legacy to Fort McMurray


CARRIE KELLY


There’s no denying that Fort McMurray is famous for its oilsands, but for the people who call it home, it’s clear that oil is only part of the story.


Longtime resident and businesswoman Frances Jean spent two years compiling vignettes of people who made a diff erence to Fort McMurray.


More Than Oil: Trappers, Traders & Settlers of Northern Alberta was released earlier this year on Jean’s 80th birthday.


“I felt it was going to be my legacy to Fort McMurray,” she says.


She originally planned to pen a book about the people the streets of Fort McMurray are named after. But the scope expanded when she realized just how many interesting people helped shape McMurray and yet don’t have streets named for them. One hundred and nineteen people are featured in More Than Oil.


The book is incredibly researched and starts with the First Peoples of the area, who lived there long before Fort McMurray became known as the Oilsands Capital of Canada. It speaks of a time when dog mushing and fur trading were a real part of daily life and tells tales of entrepreneurs and colourful characters whose stories were otherwise at risk of being forgotten.


Jean moved to Fort McMurray with her husband and children in 1967 and those 45 years of living in the community have provided her with a wealth of information and sense of history few others can match. She and her late husband, Bernard, published a weekly newspaper in McMurray in the 1970s and owned and operated Jean’s Stationery and Gifts for 34 years. One of their sons, Brian Jean, is the Member of Parliament for Fort McMurray–Athabasca.


For those who have only known Fort McMurray as a fast-paced modern and constantly growing city (although it is actually a regional municipality), it is interesting to read about when it was truly a small town. In 1947, it was called the Village of Fort McMurray and it wasn’t until 1962 that the word Fort was brought back. That year, the population was 1,186. Today, it is around 77,000.


While many people might believe that everyone in Fort McMurray works at an oilsands project as an engineer or driving a heavy hauler, Jean’s book showcases the diversity of the careers that brought so many to the community.


Many families, such as the Loutits, arrived in Fort McMurray several generations ago thanks to work provided by the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1926, Peder Tolen, for whom Tolen Drive is named, moved his family to Fort McMurray for a job at the Hudson’s Bay Company warehouse.


Fort McMurray was a defi nite draw in the early 1900s for those who wanted a trapline. Gus Hawker moved to McMurray to trap squirrels. More Than Oil documents how Hawker experienced some


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success, making $80 trapping squirrels, but lost it all when his boat sank in the Athabasca River and he had to walk 70 miles into town. He later opened a store that sold groceries and supplies.


One of Jean’s favourite stories in her book is of the amazing Ryan brothers — it was said that everything they did turned to gold. Mickey Ryan used dogs for the mail run, outfi tting them with tiny moose-hide moccasins to keep their feet warm and dry. His contract allowed him 12 days to get from Athabasca to Fort McMurray with the mail.


Roger Witmer provided illustrations for the book. The ones on the cover are now featured on a mural on the Northwest Mounted Police building at Fort McMurray’s Heritage Park. The book is available for sale at Heritage Park or it can be ordered directly from the author by calling 780-743-2841.


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