In Wabamun there was a telephone system, post office, livery stable, blacksmith shop, two hotels with dining rooms, a doctor and pharmacist, a pool room and barber shop, several stores, a daily stage coach connection to Lac Ste. Anne, a curling rink and skating rink in the winter. By 1914 there was even a weekly newspaper, the MIRROR, and a graveyard.
Wabamun was a tourist resort on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, which ran summer weekend excursion trains from Edmonton. The lake was the big draw. Sailing, rowing, fishing, moonlight trips on the tour boats, swimming, picnics on the beach, a bandstand and dance pavillion in the park, beer in the hotels.
The First World War, beginning in 1914, put an end to Wabamun's glory as a tourist mecca. Many men went off to fight and their families moved back east or to Edmonton, and many never returned. The excursion trains stopped running, which put an end to the summer tourist trade for the hotels and boat rentals. The passing of the Prohibition Act in 1916 probably didn't help either. Wabamun became just one more stop on the GTP, a small town catering to the needs of the local farmers and miners.
In 1902 it took my great-grandparents three weeks to travel the sixty miles from Edmonton to White Whale Lake (Wabamun). It was a week's round trip for the freighters such as my grandfather. When the trains came the world expanded once more, it became an hour long trip to Stony Plain from Wabamun, two hours to Edmonton. By 1913 it was a Saturday excursion.
The settlers moved to town to open businesses or practice their trades or just to live near other people and have access to a community, but many kept their homesteads.
Some of the early settlers, their homesteads and when they arrived, and what they did when they moved to Wabamun
Walter Boswell (NW28-53-4-W5, 1906) His wife ran a nursing home, he did odd jobs
Hayward E. Carter (SE8-53-3-W5, 1904) - Storekeeper, hotel keeper.
C.E.Carthew (NW10-53-3-W5) - Doctor.
Frank Edwin Cassan- (NE28-53-4-W5, 1906) -Freighter
C. H. Dunn (SE11-53-4-W5, SE14-53-4-W5, c.1902) - Lakeview Hotelier, mine operator.
Jens Hellum (SE24-53-4-W5, 1908) - Blacksmith
G.C. Laight (NW8-53-3-W5, 1903) - Postmaster, Real estate agent, insurance broker
Alfred Root (SW28-53-3-W5, 1907) - Builder
Walker Short (PtE6-53-3-W5) - Livery stable
A. Smith (NE26-53-4-W5) - Royal George Hotel
A.C. Smith (NE8-53-3-W5, 1905) -Butcher, auctioneer
Prudence M.J. Taylor- (NW26-53-4-W5) - Widow of Bill Taylor, storekeeper in Old Wabamun.
Walter Street (NW36-53-4-W5) - Operated barn for the ice company
Waide Walker (SE36-53-4-W5) - Hotel
William Wilkinson (SE22-53-4-W5) - Boat rental
Henry White (SW8-53-3-W5) - Storekeeper, livery stable
Hilda Margerison's article on Wabamun in the "Hills of Hope", published by Carvel Unifarm in 1976, is an excellent source for more informaton.
Districts, Villages and Points of Interest