Skip to content

LOOKBACK: City once home to 25 football teams

Three Mile Bend was closed to all users after an Alberta Fish and Wildlife officer shot an injured moose calf that was in the Red Deer park with its mother. Fish and Wildlife,
LOOK-BACK-CAMEL
Camels

ONE YEAR AGO

• Three Mile Bend was closed to all users after an Alberta Fish and Wildlife officer shot an injured moose calf that was in the Red Deer park with its mother. Fish and Wildlife, police and bylaw officers were called to the popular dog-walking park just before 11 a.m. after a cow moose and her calf were spotted at Three Mile Bend. “We’d been aware of the two moose in the area for a couple of days,” said Fish and Wildlife officer Bryan Poll, who knew the calf had a shoulder injury. After getting a better look at it Monday, he said, “We didn’t think the calf was going to make it.”

• Three challengers got seats on Red Deer city council after an election race that resulted in one incumbent losing her job. Dianne Wyntjes, Chris Stephan and Paul Harris joined incumbents Tara Veer, Cindy Jefferies, Frank Wong, Buck Buchanan and Lynne Mulder around the council chambers table for the next three years.

FIVE YEARS AGO

• Neighbours left a meeting about an alleged drug house in Kerry Wood Estates feeling “empowered” and ready to take back their neighbourhood. Organizer Charlene Marshall said she was thrilled that 35 to 40 people showed up to air concerns and discuss strategies in coping with a problem condo near Kerry Wood Drive and 60th Street.

• A mysterious ancient mammal that was mouse-sized but not a rodent became the latest species to be identified from a paleontological treasure trove north of Red Deer. The fossil of the tiny horolodectes sunae — named for its hour-glass shaped teeth and biting ability — had been discovered by an amateur paleontologist 25 years before.

10 YEARS AGO

• Red Deer firefighters donned hazardous materials suits to deal with an unidentified powder in a suspicious envelope delivered to Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen. It was part of a worldwide cautious reaction after anthrax-tainted letters were discovered in New York, Washington and Florida.

• An out-of-control forest fire about 50 km west of Sundre threatened to burn down mountain resorts and harm residents.

25 YEARS AGO

• The deadline was midnight for anyone joining a pair of local companies in the bid for a new Red Deer FM light-rock radio station. Park Country Broadcasting Ltd., which owned and operated CKGY Radio (AM 1170), applied to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission for a license to open a new, predominantly light rock music station on the FM dial. Monarch Broadcasting Ltd., which owned and operated CFCR Radio (FM 99) also applied to the CRTC, but in this case, for permission to change its FM country music format to predominantly light rock, still on the FM dial.

• The game had been around since they invented kids, almost! It’s simple; a game every boy and a few girls, can play and it doesn’t cost much — just an old football and a pair of sneakers. Suddenly, touch foot ball had become big. Big, that is, if organized leagues, former Canadian Football League stars and national championships are an indication. And, little, old Red Deer was smack dab in the middle of it all. Our city boasted 25 men’s teams, a strong, nine-team women’s league and two representative at the Canadian championships in Vancouver.

50 YEARS AGO

• Farmers in the Red Deer region are collecting approximately $700,000 for the spectacularly heavy crop of rapeseed they harvested this fall from more than 10,000 acres. A survey by the Advocate today revealed that more than 95 per cent of the rapeseed acreage in the city’s territory had been harvested, with yields from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre and the overall average yield for this entire region being a hefty 1,400 pounds per acre. The specialty crop, used mainly for yielding vegetable oil, has been returning farmers in the city’s territory up to $4.65 per hundred weight and average returns are estimated to $4.50 per hundred weight. On that basis, farmers here have been pocketing around $63 per acre for their heavy yields, some receiving $90 per acre.

• Operations of the large broiler plant established half a mile west of Blackfalds by Parkland Farms Ltd., of Red Deer now has attained capacity production and every 10 days the new venture is shipping approximately 12,000 chickens to an Edmonton killing and processing plant. Officials of the company told the Advocate today that the ultra-modern plant has 60,000 birds on feed in its five barns, each of which has two decks. This number is to be maintained, the year round. As shipments of chickens are made to the slaughter trade, new chicks are placed on feed. All of the chicks are being obtained for the plant from the Red Deer Hatchery and are of the Bray boiler breed developed in Ontario.

100 YEARS AGO

• One man was fatally injured, another hurt less seriously and the Lacombe CPR station damaged by an explosion. The explosion was said to have resulted from the two men handling a “flashlight apparatus trunk” in the building’s baggage room.

• Buildings valued at $219,000 were constructed in Red Deer during the year. Among them were the Ladies’ College and the Alberta Garage.