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Rundle / Sinclair Mission Site

Mission Beach

Other Names:
Rundle Mission
Rundle's (McDougall) Mission
Rundle's Mission
Benjamin and Margaret Sinclair Provincial Historic Site

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place
N/A

Heritage Value
N/A

Character-Defining Elements
N/A

Location



Street Address:
Community: Mission Beach
Boundaries: Lots 3 and 4, Plan 9022611
Contributing Resources: N/A

ATS Legal Description:
Mer Rge Twp Sec LSD
5
1
47
30
3 (ptn.)

PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
Plan Block Lot Parcel
9022611
9022611


4
3



Latitude/Longitude:
Latitude Longitude CDT Datum Type
53.077403 -114.141074

UTM Reference:
Northing Easting Zone CDT Datum Type

Recognition

Recognition Authority: Province of Alberta
Designation Status: Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation: 1997/09/22

Historical Information

Built: 1847 to 1847
Period of Significance: N/A
Theme(s):
Historic Function(s): Religion, Ritual and Funeral : Mission
Current Function(s): Leisure : Historic or Interpretive Site
Architect:
Builder:
Context: HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE

In 1840 George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, invited four Wesleyan Methodists to establish a mission in Rupert's Land. Robert Terrill Rundle was one of these missionaries. Prior to 1840 Roman Catholic and Anglican missions had been established in the North West, but as a matter of policy Simpson had no desire to favour one faith over another, and the Methodists could serve as a useful counterbalance to Catholic and Anglican missionaries.

Rundle was born in 1811 in England and joined the Methodist ministry in1839. By March of 1840 he was sailing to North America to take up his new missionary duties. He did not reach Fort Edmonton until October 1840 where he set up an itinerant ministry visiting Aboriginal people in their camps. For the next eight years he traveled extensively throughout the Saskatchewan River district and into what would become northern Alberta.

On his travels he began to believe that what was needed was a permanent agricultural mission that would teach Aboriginal people to farm and also supply Methodist missions with a reliable source of food. Rundle choose a site at the north end of Pigeon Lake for this mission but he was not directly associated with its establishment in 1847-48. Rundle returned to England in1848 and responsibility for the Pigeon Lake mission really fell to Benjamin Sinclair, a catechist from Norway House. Sinclair tried to make the mission work but its location south of the North Saskatchewan River was considered dangerous and the site was abandoned until 1856-57 when Thomas Woolsey and Henry Bird Steunhauer tried again to establish a mission at Pigeon Lake. It was not until 1865 that a mission was permanently established at this site by John and Abigail McDougall. This mission was more successful and operated from 1865 to 1906 when it closed. The major reason for its closure was the settlement of Aboriginal people on reserves elsewhere in the area.

The historical significance of the site lies in its association with Methodist missionary activity in Alberta, its role as one of the first mission settlements to try to teach agriculture to Aboriginal people, and its connection to significant historical persons such as Robert Rundle, Benjamin Sinclair, Henry Bird Steinhauer, and the McDougall family. For these reasons it has been declared a Provincial Historic Resource.

Additional Information

Object Number: 4665-0438
Designation File: DES 1701
Related Listing(s):
Heritage Survey File: HS 81398
Website Link: http://www.rundlesmission.org/index.html
Data Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 1701)
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