Image: A film still showing a Peace River sign (SPRA 449.01.20, Fonds 449: Foster Family fonds)
Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie
It’s Movie Monday, and today we are sharing our fourth film from the Foster family fonds. This film shows scenes of a 1965 road trip that took the family to Moberly Lake, a Pacific Great Eastern Railway, bridge, the Dunvegan Bridge, Taylor Bridge, and the Bennett Dam construction site at Hudson’s Hope. The Fosters enjoyed many family vacations over the years, travelling as far as Australia in 1964! A number of these trips are preserved on 8mm film and will be featured later on Movie Monday.
As the infrastructure of northern Alberta and British Columbia continued to develop in the ‘50s and ‘60s, many inhabitants of the Grande Prairie area hopped in their cars and drove off to witness remarkable feats of engineering, such as Bennett Dam and the Dunvegan and Taylor bridges. Highway 2, which connects Dawson Creek to Alberta, was built in 1952 – just in time for all the Albertans who would make the pilgrimage to the Taylor Bridge and the dam site at Hudson’s Hope!
Many of our Movie Monday films feature scenes of the Dunvegan Bridge and Bennett Dam. Visit our YouTube channel to check them out!