Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Amber Valley
Parallel form(s) of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
1910-present
History
The first settlers at Amber Valley, Alberta (formerly known as Pine Creek) about 12 kilometres east of Athabasca, were Black settlers who escaped Jim Crow discrimination laws in the newly-formed state of Oklahoma in the early 1900s. Henry Sneed traveled to Alberta in 1909 to scout possible homesteads for settlers. Several Canadian groups including the Winnipeg Board of Trade, The Edmonton Trades and Labour Council, the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, and several newspapermen were not in favour of Black immigrants. They wrote petitions and mounted protests to pressure the federal government to close the border to Blacks. Canadian officials attempted to discourage settlers by creating stringent entrance requirements and by directing unfavourable propaganda toward Black Oklahomans. Henry Sneed’s parties were well prepared and they arrived in Canada in 1910 – 1912 eventually settling in the Pine Creek area. The land was covered in heavy bush and could only be accessed by traditional trails through the country side. Bush had to be cleared by hand and this made it hard for settlers to clear sufficient land and raise enough crops to fulfill the requirements of the Dominion Land Act. On average 30 – 80 acres were cleared by each founding family. In the winter months, people worked away from home to keep their families. The trip to Athabasca through forest trails could take two days until automobile transportation began in the 1920s.
Early families were the Murphys, Bowens, Carruthers (Carothers), Edwards, Mapps, and Saunders. The population peaked in the 1930s at about 350; enough to support a post office, church, cemetery, store and community hall. The local midwife was Mrs. Broady. Amber Valley was cited as the name of the Pine Creek area (TWP 66, Ranges 19, 20 and 21, W4, and TWP 67, Range 19, W4) when the post office was created in 1931. There is disagreement as to whether a local teacher, Mrs. Cromwell, and her influential husband, named the community, or a student in her classroom won a competition to name it. A one-room school, Toles School, was built in 1913 and was named after Mr. Nimrod Toles. A recreation of Toles School was installed at the Canadian Museum of History in 2006 but it has since been dismantled.
50-year, 75-year, and 100th-anniversary celebrations were observed in 1960, 1985 and 2009. A new Amber Valley Cultural Centre was built in 2014 and the historic location of the community was marked by an Alberta Government heritage sign on Hwy 55. Parks Canada Historic Sites and Monuments Board erected a plaque in 2017 honouring Black settlers in Saskatchewan and Alberta and it is now located at the Amber Valley Cultural Centre. There is a small museum at the cultural centre and a poster presentation of Amber Valley history. The Community Association remains active although many of the original families have moved away over the years. Home-coming celebrations occur from time to time and Athabascans from town and county look forward to Amber Valley Community Association chicken suppers each year.
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Athabasca Archives