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When the Dominion Land Surveys opened up northern Alberta in 1902 an hour’s drive north of what is now Edmonton, Edison was established as one of the region’s first agricultural and transportation service communities. Little more than a decade later, the railway was built several kilometers to the west and Edison was absorbed by the new settlement of Westlock.
Prior to settlement through the Homestead Act, this region had been a transitory home for many thousands of years to the First Nations peoples and later to their successors in the fur trade, Métis traders and transportation workers. No permanent settlement of First Nations people in this are has been recorded.
Although this area north of Morinville welcomed other settlers, Edison was the first “community centre” between the Landing and Simpson Trails.
This Community Stories exhibit documents Edison’s ascendancy as a community centre from 1902 — 1913. The record was created thanks to the exemplary effort of the community’s early diarists, amateur historians, biographers and photographers.
