Key Number:	HS 75609
Site Name:	Monkman Barn
Other Names:	Alexander Monkman Barn
Site Type:	0502 - Farming and Ranching: Barn

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			72	8	6

Address:	N/A
Number:	N/A
Street:	N/A
Avenue:	N/A
Other:
Town:
Near Town:	Lake Saskatoon

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:	Rectangular Short Facade
Storeys:	Storeys: 1 1/2
Foundation:
Superstructure:	Horizontal Finished Log
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:	Gambrel
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Single Detached Wings: Unknown Wall Design and Detail: None Roof Trim - Eaves: Plain Soffit Roof Trim Material - Eaves: Wood Roof Trim - Verges: Plain Soffit Roof Trim Material - Verges: Wood Towers, Steeples and Domes: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Unknown Roof Trim - Special Features: None Window - Structural Opening Shape: None Main Porch - Type: Recess Main Porch - Special Features: None Main Porch - Material: Concrete Main Porch - Height: First Storey
Exterior:	Saddle notch corners.
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	Overlooking Cutbank Lake.
Condition:	Poor
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started	1904/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Barn	1904/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Alexander Monkman

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Alexander Monkman - Original Settler in the area who established the fur trading post at the north end of Lake Saskatoon. Cattle were driven into area as early as 1903 and acquired by Alex Monkman. Alex Monkman also discovered the Monkman Pass. Alexander Monkman died in 1941 - Pioneer, farmer, trapper and discoverer. * * * Monkman operated a trading post at Lake Saskatoon from 1899-1906, for Col. J.K. Cornwall & Fletcher Bredin. He says in a letter dated 1922, 'While in the employ of Bredin & Cornwall, the little farming I did was a side issue on my own & as early as 1903 there was no other crop on Grande Prairie ot about Beaverlodge area. He also says that until 1903 there was only one other man (Sexsmith) to 'Prove up' on the land in Grande Prairie (Distict) at least by 1903. Possibly as early as 1899. In 1937, the Monkman Pass Assoc. was organized as a voluntary 'Effort to hack a highway through as far as Hansard on the C.N.R. east of Prince George as a coastal outlet. (p.119). He & Cornwall cut the trail from Spirit River to Saskatoon Lake in the Course of setting up the post (1899). * * * Alexander Monkman's Homestead. 1900 - Fur trader, homesteaded in area. Discovered Monkman Pass. Died 1941. Lake Saskatoon really began when transient free traders started operations near Lake Saskatoon. In 1899, Alex Monkman established a permanent trading post at Lake Saskatoon to head off and compete with the Hudson Bay Company. In 1906 Alex Monkman founded and lead the Canadian National Railroad exhibition across the lowest and easiest path north of the 49th parallel. The Pass was named after him. * * * The site immediately north of the proposed total Petroleum Canada Ltd. Wembley area fluids flowline right-of-way but will not be impacted by the proposed project. * * * Alex Monkman in 1900 he married Anne Louisa Tate - They had five children. Built around 1900. House was a meeting place for Blazing the Monkman Pass and community centre for dances. The house was originally built at Lake Saskatoon. 1906 - The house was moved to the free grant on the NW6-73-8-W6 1909 - House was hauled to where it is today - The logs were numbered for re-assembly. 1956 - House was abandoned - but it is still owned by the family. Mrs. Sarah Monkman Winter - She was married to Fletcher Monkman - son of Alex Monkman - The farm is rented out to Henry Hrychiw. *** HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE One of the first European Canadian settlers on the Grande Prairie was Alex Monkman, who opened a store at Lake Saskatoon for the firm of Bredin and Cornwall in November 1899.   With the signing of Treaty #8 that summer, and a significant influx of cash into the northwest, Bredin and Cornwall were out to challenge the Hudson’s Bay Company for the trade in the Peace River Country.   Theirs was a combined operation which undertook cash sales as well as barter for furs.   At the post on Lake Saskatoon, Monkman also began one of the first farms in the south Peace River Country.   In 1906, when Bredin and Cornwall sold out to Revillon Freres, Monkman was replaced at Lake Saskatoon by Leon Ferguson.   Impressed by the agricultural potential of Grande Prairie, however, Monkman set up a ranch on the shore of Bear Lake with cattle purchased from Jim McCreight.   When the land in the district was surveyed for homesteading in 1909-10, Monkman filed for a quarter-section at SE22 TP32 R8 W6 by Cutbank Lake.   He moved his house here from the cow camp at Bear Lake in 1910, and over the next few years he erected a number of other buildings.   Several of these still stand on what was the first homestead in the region.   One of the buildings which remains on the Monkman property is the large barn, erected in 1916, just after the railway arrived in Grande Prairie.   The barn served Monkman’s thriving cattle operation on leases next to Bear Lake, and due to its size, it was also a social centre for parties and dances.   Over the years, Alex Monkman became a leading member of the community around Lake Saskatoon and Grande Prairie.   He is best known for his effort in the 1930s to get a road built southwest from Beaverlodge through the Rocky Mountains, a potential outlet for the Peace River Country to Prince George and Vancouver.   Monkman had discovered a pass sometime earlier, and publicized it as being 160 feet lower than the Yellowhead Pass.   It was hoped that the British Columbia and federal governments would pick up on the idea and complete the road, but this was during the depression, and nothing came of it at the time.   The pass is now officially designated Monkman Pass and there is a British Columbia provincial park there.   Alex Monkman’s farm at Cutbank Lake had served as the business centre for the Monkman Pass Highway Association.   The historical significance of the Monkman site lies in its connection with Alex Monkman, and even more so, in its association with the first wave of settlement in the Peace River Country, the last major region of North America to be thrown open for homesteading.   The 1906 house is one of the two oldest buildings in the south Peace River Country, and the 1916 barn is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, such structure in the district.   Along with the machine shed, granary and outhouse, they exemplify the pioneer spirit of the district and of the time. *************************** Barn is on SE 27; original October 19, 2001 designation was for NE22 only. May 16, 2011 ministerial order expanded area to include location of barn.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource Provincial Historic Resource	2001/10/19 2011/05/16

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places: