ONE YEAR AGO
• An unidentified teenager was being treated for multiple injuries after attempting to get a closer look at Crescent Falls, a popular attraction on the Bighorn River, west of Rocky Mountain House. The 17-year-old girl had climbed over the rails at about 12:30 p.m. on Friday when she slipped, falling about eight metres onto the rocks below, said Cpl. James Peck of the Rocky RCMP.
Kananaskis Country Rescue team was called into the pull the girl out of the gorge, Peck said.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• Thousands of people took in the spectacular fireworks display that capped Red Deer’s celebration of Alberta’s 100th birthday. The light show was one of 10 identical ones at various Alberta locations at exactly the same time.
The fireworks were choreographed to explode to music written by Alberta composer George Blondheim.
• Red Deer’s Deidra Dionne was preparing for surgery after suffering a neck injury before a freestyle skiing World Cup aerials competition in Australia. Dionne feared the injury might prevent her from competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
10 YEARS AGO
• The night skies were lighting up east of Red Deer as the new Nova Chemicals plant underwent massive flaring. Nova was preparing to start up what was to be the largest ethylene plant in the world.
• Ponoka native Robin Lyons denied any wrong-doing after being suspended from the Canadian Olympic hammer-throw team for using a banned substance. The 23-year-old woman tested positive for norandrosterone, costing her an Olympic dream.
25 YEARS AGO
• Fear for children’s safety prompted the manager of Bower Ponds to seek a new home for two cantankerous geese. John Williams said one of them jumped into a paddle boat and bit a girl leaving red marks on her arm. “When pushing comes to shoving, they don’t play around, “ Mr. Williams said. “It’s hard to tell young kids not to do it. They don’t realize they’re teasing them. “They could peck out a child’s eye. They could break a child’s leg. A full grown goose can crush a dog’s head if it hammers with its beak,” he said.
• Several local bars would sell drinks until 2 a.m. taking immediate advantage of new longer drinking hours. But owners and managers were not necessarily happy about it. Bernie Hoffman, manager of the Windsor Hotel, said he would reluctantly join others to stay open later. “I think the present law is long enough,” he said. “The only reason I’m opening is because everybody else will be doing it.”
50 YEARS AGO
• Eighteen youngsters would race down Spruce Drive in the second annual Kinsmen Soap Box Derby. The 18 entries included four from St. Alberta and a possible entry from Lacombe. Though the derby was open to any boy between the ages of nine and 15, the youngest entrant was ten and the oldest 13. The races would be run in number of heats.
• Refusal of two landowners to sell certain lands to the city to allow development of the Riverside Industrial Park and the entry of the Canadian National Line resulted in the opening of expropriation proceedings.
City council resolved “that title to the said lands be acquired by expropriation in the name of the city.” Lands in question were approximately 36 acres owned by Edward. J. Hermary and 14.75 acres owned by Mr. And Mrs. Fred Noyes.
Refusal of the owners to sell to the city had held up construction on the rail line and work had stopped on the grading and tie-laying.
90 YEARS AGO
• A room in the basement of the Alexandra Hotel was secured as a club room for the Boy Scouts. This will make the central headquarters for the Troop, where a workshop and instruction during the winter months could be carried on. The bugle band was also being formed and practices had begun under the direction of Mr. D. P. Muir, who is taking great interest in selecting the most suitable boys to form the band.
• Rev. Sister Jane was appointed superior of the Convent of Dorval, near Montreal. Sister Jane was one to the six sisters who were sent to Red Deer in October 1908 for the establishment of St. Joseph’s Convent, and she had endeared herself to all by her kind disposition. She was also a real artist and the beautiful decorations of the chapel and of the main altar in the church will remain as a monument of her talent.
100 YEARS AGO
• Barnes’ Big Three-Ring Circus was to perform in Red Deer. The show featured lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, bears, elephants, camels, zebras, and “a large number of performing dogs and monkeys.”
• Merchant H.H. Gaetz received 10 crates of peaches, the first fruit from his farm in Penticton, B.C.