Reminiscing by Lot Scott Willey 1885-1960

Booklet - Scottie (Lot) Willey reminisces about his life in Athabasca. He came to Athabasca in 1903, at the age of eighteen, hauling freight from Edmonton. He talks about the insects and terrain that they and their horses had to endure. He recalls the early years when many services were just beginning to appear in Athabasca. Some of these early services were the bus line, restaurant and boarding house, post office, churches, school, and the telegraph line. He remembers The Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and the use of scows, and then later the steamboat to haul freight north. Many people were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company to haul, load and unload freight. The company had reserved one square mile within the town so that no competitors could open up stores within this mile; so, a couple of private stores were opened outside of this square mile. Scottie was involved in some of the recreational activities offered in Athabasca during those early years. Football (soccer), baseball and foot racing were all popular activities. A fox "boom" occurred during these early years as well. There was an abundance of foxes, and the pelts were valuable. Scottie recalls hauling a load of live foxes worth over $20,000, to be sold to a man in PEI. A land boom also occurred where real estate companies bought large sections of land, subdivided and sold the smaller parcels all over Canada, the USA and England. In 1955, Scottie was given an award for having lived the longest time in the Athabasca district (10 pages)