Key Number:	HS 16227
Site Name:	Grizzly Bear Coulee Telegraph Station
Other Names:
Site Type:	1202 - Communications: Radio or Television Station

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			48	5	4

Address:	Grizzly Bear Coulee
Number:	N/A
Street:	N/A
Avenue:	N/A
Other:
Town:
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:
Storeys:
Foundation:
Superstructure:
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:
Exterior:	N/A
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	Located on Grizzly Bear Creek, 13 miles south and 6 miles east of the town of Vermilion. Aproximately 1.61 acres. Legal Description: SW quarter of 20-48-5-W4th required for parcel A as shown on a plan of survey of parcel as .396 RS SW & NW -20-48-5-W4th excepting (a) out of NW quarter 4.16 acres as shown by plan 382RS (b) 2.23 acres plan 1005 ET (e) 1.83 acres - plan 2463CL.
Condition:	Heritage Monument. No signs, plaques or cairns mark the site.
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Constructed	1876/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Telegraph station Use of station discontinued	1876/01/01 1881/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Province of Alberta	1968/12/16

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	1880 - maintenance headquarters for section of Dominion Telegraph. A Telegraph Station was established in Grizzly Bear Coulee, right on the creek in 1876-77. It is doubtful that this was ever an operating station. There is no mention of receiving or transmitting messages from this point in the research material. It was likely one of the large repair huts. Robert McKernan was stationed at Grizzly Bear Coube until sometime in 1880, and maintained the line eastward to 30 miles west of Battleford. In 1881 a repair man named Salisbury replaced McKernan. He was probably stationed at Grizzly Bear Coulee. If so he was the last repairman stationed there. The first telegraph line in the West Grizzly Bear Coulee, midway between Vermilion and Wainwright, in east-central Alberta, is designated a Provincial Historical Resource. It was the location of maintenance headquarters around 1880 for a section of the Dominion Telegraph, the first telegraph to reach that part of the Northwest Territories now known as Alberta. The telegraph line stretched 30 miles west of Battleford. The section west of Battleford, Saskatchewan, was put into use in 1877, the maintenance headquarters were established at Grizzly Bear Coulee and Hay Lakes. It is believed the Grizzly Bear station was abandoned in 1881 or 1882 when maintenance operations were re-arranged. For the next two or three years the station may have served as a stopping place or repair shelter. In 1884 a two-man maintenance crew was stationed at Eleanor, just north of Ernest Lake, near the old Grizzly Bear station. They stayed there until 1887 when the telegraph line was abandoned and a new line built between Battleford and Edmonton along the north side of the North Saskatchewan River.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	1976/06/15

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0157