Stettler was a Canadian Pacific townsite that came into formal existence in 1905. For the first few years, Canadian Pacific was the only rail company in town. However, with other rail companies planning routes, and building lines around the province, the Stettler Board of Trade didn’t want to have to compete with other fledgling communities that were on competing rail lines. When Canadian Northern began looking to build a southbound rail line from the Brazeau Coalfields that would come near Stettler, the Board of Trade began reaching out to them to put Stettler on that route.
Being the only rail service in the community, Canadian Pacific could charge whatever they wanted for services. Despite Canadian Northern’s announcement that Stettler wasn’t on their planned route, the group of businessmen and citizens who had started looking into a second rail line were not deterred, and with the help of Stettler Constituency MLA Robert Lee Shaw, they continued to pressure the Canadian government and Canadian Northern to alter their route.
Canadian Pacific was limited in what they could do to prevent competition from coming to Stettler. They couldn’t stop a competing rail line from putting the community on their route, but they could make Stettler a less attractive option money-wise by raising the price of unsold land Canadian Pacific owned and controlled. In an effort to support their case to Canadian Northern, the Stettler Board of Trade bought a parcel of land on the south end of Stettler and offered to sell it to Canadian Northern.
Alberta Midland was building the track for Canadian Northern and although the original route towards Stettler was going to turn and go south towards Warden, the Stettler delegation reached out to Canadian Northern again, and they were able to reach a compromise.
Canadian Northern would include Stettler on their Vegreville line which would also connect to the Warden line. Although Stettler wouldn’t have a main terminal like they were for Canadian Pacific, Canadian Northern did build an equally impressive station and designated Stettler the handling point for passenger traffic and Brazeau traffic.
In June of 1910 a small envoy of Stettler residents, business owners, and the Stettler band met the rail construction crews as they finally came towards Stettler.
The Stettler Station was what Canadian Northern referred to as their 'Second Class' station design. Although the Independent had proclaimed it would be one of the best stations in the province, with the exception of Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge, the Second Class station was fairly standard and was also used in Big Valley (1912) and in Hanna (1913).
By the 1920s, Canadian Northern was having financial difficulties and would be taken over by the Canadian Government in an effort to save the company. Several smaller rail lines were amalgamated to form the Canadian National Railway and the Stettler line would eventually become redundant. Over the years, as lines started to close down, Stettler saw less and less traffic and would discontinue passenger service through the Canadian National station in the late 1970s with the Second Class station being closed and moved to the Stettler museum in 1980.
Carson Ellis, Reporter & Local Historian at Our Town Stettler
Comments