The City of Red Deer is looking at incorporating more Indigenous history — as well as general history — into new parks signage.
McKenzie Trails, Heritage Ranch, the Pines escarpment and Three Mile Bend are all targeted to get new signs. How many of these parks will undergo this transformation this summer and fall will depends on how many signs can be purchased in this year’s budget, said parks superintendent John Eastwood.
The new metal signs will take some time to manufacture, he added, so this could leave a small window before next winter for installation.
The City of Red Deer’s sign replacement project has been on-going for about a decade across the Waskasoo Parks system. Dilapidated wooden signs from the 1980s, often containing outdated information, are being replaced with longer-wearing metal signs.
This has already happened in Great Chief Park and Bower Ponds, Discovery Canyon and some Kiwanis parks.
Parks users will notice the Chief Waskasoo image was dropped from the new signage. Eastman isn’t sure why, as the new branding pre-dates his employment with the city, but he thinks this was done to make Waskasoo Parks logos more consistent with other city signs.
Although the chief’s picture is gone, Eastman said the staff in his department plan to talk to local Indigenous groups to try to incorporate more of First Nations and Métis history into the signs as a step towards Reconciliation.
His department is also working with Waskasoo Environmental Education Society to update interpretive descriptions. In many cases, natural areas along park trails have dramatically changed since the mid-1980s due to tree growth, erosion, hillside slumps and other factors.
Eastwood also hopes to draw more of the area’s general history into the interpretive markers. He laments the loss of historian Michael Dawe, as the late city councillor was a well of historical information.
If any other city residents know details about the past that could be illuminating for parks users, Eastwood said he would love to hear from them.
The Red Deer Parks sign replacement program is ongoing and could take many more years to complete, depending on the annual money available in parks budgets. The city is also planning to add more land to the parks system with the former Michener North site.
The sale of this provincial property to the City of Red Deer is expected to take place this year, after the land is surveyed and studies show that soil remediation is complete.