Small Moments in Time: The Story of Alberta's Big West Country

Nora D.S. Robins is co-ordinator of Internal Collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

Anne Belliveau has written an excellent history of a little-known region
of Alberta—the Big West, also known as David Thompson Country. The
heart of the region is the Upper North Saskatchewan River Corridor, the
Shunda Basin, and the Nordegg area. It is a region of rolling foothills
and high mountain peaks, with some of the most diverse scenery, flora,
and history to be found anywhere in Alberta.

Indians, fur traders, coal miners, and settlers all played a part in
the development of the Big West. Beginning in the late 1790s, a series
of forts was established in Rocky Mountain House as a base for trading
with the Indians and exploring further west. David Thompson traveled
through in 1801.

In 1907, Martin Nordegg came to Alberta from Germany in search of
exploitable minerals. He discovered coal in the Kananaskis near the
Brazeau and Big Horn rivers. This led to the establishment of the
Brazeau Collieries to supply coal to the Canadian Northern Railway. The
settlement that grew up near the mine site was officially named Nordegg
when the post office opened in 1914.

Nordegg was a planned community modeled in part on Mount Royal in
Montreal. At its peak, it was a thriving little community of about 300.
The town’s prosperity ended in the 1950s, when the railway switched to
diesel and coal was no longer in demand. Most of the residents were
relocated, and Nordegg became a ghost town.

Small Moments in Time is a fine example of what a local history should
be: well researched, fully sourced, and thoroughly readable. There is a
wealth of information about the region, the town, and its inhabitants.
The reader also learns a lot about coal mining. Members of the
author’s family have lived in the Nordegg region since the early
1900s, and Belliveau herself grew up in the town. A former teacher, she
now serves as historian for the Nordegg Historical Society.

The black-and-white photographs and maps, together with the chapter
notes and bibliography, greatly enhance this history.