Friday, October 21, 2011

The long Journey to Tomslake B.C





After a long journey across Canada the train stopped in Tupper, B. C.  and the last  3 waggons were uncoupled to spill out the new settlers. 
A new chapter
Finally 518  people arrived at the Tate Creek Ranch at Tupper what  became the location of what was called Sudeten settlement. They were city people with no agricultural experience.

Without doubt the men in charge of accommodating large groups of urban people in an isolated area  McConell, the CCA supervisor faced many problems to deal with.

He wrote: "There were only two trains per week from Edmonton three hundred miles away, there was no truck traffic." For some reason he never knew in advance how many people would arrive at any particular time. "Other standard supplies were often difficult to obtain. The source of the greatest annoyance is a constant shortage of inventories. Limited transportation facilities, shortage of stocks in Edmonton and the very short notice we receive of the movement of families makes it impossible to keep up with daily requirement We have presently only two stoves for the last twelve families."

Eventually they all settled in. They started farming, lifestock was the main-stay, but also  products from the bush, lumber for farm-buildings, ties for the railways.

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