July 1 – Dominion Day and Canada Day –has always been a popular holiday throughout the history of Red Deer.
Leonard Gaetz, considered by many to be the founder of Red Deer, had the honour of being one of the featured speakers at the Confederation celebrations in Halifax on July 1, 1867. That he was asked to speak was a tribute to his tremendous abilities as an orator. It was also a tribute to his courage as Confederation was initially very unpopular in Nova Scotia. Many regarded the new union as a scheme forced onto the Maritimes by Ontario and Quebec
The first Dominion Day celebrations to be held in Red Deer occurred in 1891, a few months after the townsite was created by the Calgary-Edmonton Railway. The festivities actually took place on July 10 as the community of Poplar Grove (Innisfail) had also planned a big event on July 1. Consequently, the citizens of Red Deer decided to postpone their celebrations so as not to conflict.
Red Deer’s celebrations included an afternoon of sports, mainly track and field events. There were foot races, broad and high jump competitions and pole vaults. For those who liked a friendly wager, there were also horse races held on a track west of the C. and E. Railway yards.
The day was capped with a large social gathering and dance in the Wilkins Hall which stood on the north side of Ross Street, a little bit west of Gaetz Avenue.
The festivities proved to be such a success that Dominion Day became the major summer time celebration in the community.
The celebrations on July 1, 1904, kept to the traditional pattern. Almost all the events were staged at the new facilities at Alexandra Park, the recently expanded fairgrounds on the south side of town.
To start, there were men’s 100-yard dashes followed by a quarter mile race. There were standing, running and high jump competitions and a special “fat man’s race” for those weighing over 200 pounds. For the boys and girls, there were foot races and as well as three legged and gunny sack races. Prizes for first place finishes ranged from 50¢ to $1, quite a bit of money in those days.
In mid-afternoon, there was a league baseball game between Calgary and Red Deer. The contest was a close one, but in the end, Calgary beat the home team by a score of 6 to 4. There was a subsequent game between the Red Deer “Stars” and a team from the newly formed village of Penhold. This time Red Deer triumphed, by a score of 11 to 1.
The rest of the afternoon was taken up with horse and Indian pony races. There was also a dog race, in case the ‘unofficial” betters wanted something else to wager on.
There were two big events in the evening. The first was a football (soccer) game between the Calgary Caledonians and Red Deer. The home team seemed to fall apart in the second half and Calgary ended up victorious. An admiring sports reporter from the local paper stated that “the Caledonians used their heads well, in more ways than one.”
The second big event was a charitable concert, organized for the benefit of the newly opened Red Deer Memorial Hospital. Despite some organizational difficulties, when several members of the Hospital Ladies Aid fell ill, the event was still felt to be a success. Many people, feeling the effects of the extreme heat of the day, turned up not only to listen to the music, but also to enjoy the ice cream and cold lemonade. A profit of $39.80 was earned.
Everyone agreed, at the end of the evening, that Dominion Day 1904 had been a grand success. More than fifteen hundred people turned out to the various events. That was roughly equal to the entire population of the town.
Michael Dawe is a Red Deer historian. His column appears on Wednesdays.
