Town of Coronation Web Site         

History of Coronation
By R. W. Merchant

    The year was 1911; stretching from the great bend of the Battle River where it swings briefly south in its quest for the eastern sea, south to Kirkpatrick Lake lies a vast area of gently rolling hills and prairie, covered with buffalo grass feet deep and so thick as to make walking through it difficult. This land, silent now except for the lonesome cry of a coyote and the sigh of the everlasting wind through the willow brakes of the coulees, was the last stronghold of the plains Indians, their rights to it bartered away to the "Great White Father" by unconscionable treaties. This area of luxuriant pasture was also the last region from which the great herds of buffalo had disappeared a scant twenty years earlier.

Construction on the C.P. Railroad near Coronation.
    Almost in the centre of this pristine land, within the apex of the Palliser triangle, on the 27th day of September 1911, the town of Coronation was born.
    Coronation! Touted as the city of the future! Divisional point of the C.P.R.! Crossroads of a great east-west, north-south grid of the country's major railways! The wheat centre of the prairies!
    And the realities: Steel went north to the Battle River and stopped, lacking only a bridge for a direct link to Edmonton. To the South it fared little better. With great expectations the rails headed south, even deeper into the Palliser triangle, the land version of the Bermuda triangle, where shattered dreams and broken hearts disappeared without a trace among the shifting sand dunes and the indifference of the passing tumble weeds. And it definitely did not turn out to be the wheat centre of the prairies.
    However, having survived the depression of the thirties, the ups and downs of droughts and the occasional bumper crop, now, in the 90's, the town is solidly established on an agricultural and petroleum base and has had a phenomenal growth in population and in new business enterprises. Throughout the long and often discouraging early years, an active and imaginative Board of Trade never lost its optimism and the Town Council never turned away any new enterprise that sought a place to set up shop. This philosophy of "the more businesses there are, the more business will come" served the town well; a fact that later councils, especially in the years following W. W. II, were to lose sight of, much to the detriment of the town.
    Coronation, named so to commemorate the Coronation of King George V the previous June, was one of a series of towns spawned by the steady advancement of the railroad as it moved ever eastward from Lacombe to Kerrobert, Sask. By September of 1911 a point was reached, twenty-two miles from the last established centre that had been chosen as the proper location for the divisional point between Lacombe and the terminus of the steel at Kerrobert.
    A stretch of high ground alongside the right of way would provide a well drained area, so lots were staked out and the public relations men of the C.P.R. and the land settlement department of the Dominion government began extolling the opportunities and wonders of this new metropolis, this "Wonder City" of the prairies. All this time, effort and planning was to culminate in this momentous and important sale of September 27,1911.
    September 26th - the day before the sale of the lots saw many buildings sitting around haphazardly waiting for a lot to be bought so they could be con-signed to a final resting place. On the day of the sale a large double-fronted building, known as Bircketts Hardware arrived, pulled by several teams of horses, and as an added note of interest, that winter the Star Theatre was trundled across the snow on runners, pulled by twentyeight horses.
    The townsite was established in section 13-36-11 and, as it usually happened in these cases, the railroad by-passed the settlers' already existing settlement of Haneyville, forcing the inhabitants to move their buildings six miles to Coronation or be left behind; this way the Company benefited from the sale of lots. There was feverish building activity as people anxiously sought to get a jump on their competitors by getting their premises at least partly built and ready to move onto their lots. Tents, lumber piles, buildings in all stages of construction, horses, wagons, buggies and the odd car created a scene of confused activity - a truly frontier scene.
    Among the first inhabitants to arrive in town were Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Robinson, Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Towns, Mrs. A. C. Bury, Mrs. McNeice, A. J. Stewart, A. D. McEwen, D. Craig, J. O'dell, C. Wilson, J. Cahoun, J. Mayhew, E. Bartlett, E. R. Haney, A. Bernhardt, Dr. Hurlburt and Lee Ping.
    Late in the afternoon of September 26th the track laying crew reached town and two hours later a train load of 300 people consisting of C.P.R. officials, settlers and speculators arrived from Winnipeg. The arrival of the speculators sent a shiver of apprehension through those who were expecting to set up businesses. These parasites of society feeding on the hopes and aspirations of the true settlers, very often drove the prices of land so high that it imposed an almost insurmountable burden on new enterprises.
    However, according to a report by J. H. Robinson, that night a private meeting of the merchants and others intending to locate permanently was held. Knowing which lots were wanted, arrangements were made as to a procedure at the sale which would, as much as possible, guard against the depredations of the speculators.
    The scheme worked almost exactly as planned and resulted in the main business street being located one block south of where the C.P.R. land agents and surveyors had expected it to be.
    September 27th, the day of the sale dawned clear and crisp, as beautiful and exhilarating as only a fall day can be. Before sunrise people were walking over the site checking survey stakes trying to decide where to buy.
    Before 9:00 A. M. over 500 people gathered around the auctioneer's platform on which was mounted a huge map of the town as depicted by the lot stakes. At 9:30 auctioneer T. C. Norris, later to become a premier of Manitoba, mounted the platform, said a few introductory words and began crying the sale. Exitement was running high; the sale had been widely advertised both in Europe and all over Canada and the U.S. Also, to add to the wonder of it, movies were being taken while the sale was in progress, these to be shown later as far away as London, England.

Selling Coronation Lots
    Bidding was lively and by noon 121 of the 828 lots on the block had been sold, and the first day's sale closed with a total of $130,000.00 worth of property sold. A single 25-foot lot sold for an average of $65.00 while some choice 50-foot corner lots went as high as $2900.00. The average business lot of 25-foot frontage was $1400.00.
    To record this auspicious event, Editor G. C. Duncan printed the first paper, the News Review, from a printing press mounted on the bed of a dray wagon and distributed free. This was the birth of the Coronation Review, as we know it today, almost all copies being available for scrutiny either at the office in Coronation or the archives of the Parliament in Edmonton.
    The day after the sale the first Board of Trade was formed at a meeting in the Bank of Toronto building; D. A. Thompson as president, C. W. Hurburt vice-president and J. D. Corbet secretary4reasurer. "Working for the betterment of our town" was the motto of this new body of thirty men and they made it work!
    A perusal of what was accomplished in the remaining three months of the year serves to illustrate just how hard they worked.
    By November 1st, 107 carloads of lumber and 330 kegs of nails had been shipped in. Besides the many farm homes and out buildings constructed from this gigantic lumber pile, there were 141 buildings in town and 524 people. There were by the end of 1911: six real estate and loan offices, six restaurants and boardmg houses, five coal and fuel dealers, four draying outfits, four pool halls, four lumberyards; three general stores; three hardware stores; three livery barns, later to total six; three implement dealers; three barber shops; three well drillers; two banks; two drug stores; two butcher shops; two blacksmiths; two bakeries; one doctor; one printing office; one harness shop; one painting and decorating firm; one dairy; one laundry and two hotels abuilding and $1500.00 worth of wooden sidewalks were laid.

A Street in 1911
    December 16th, 1911 Coronation was registered as a village and a three-man council of H. S. Northwood, D. A. Thompson and A. Munn was chosen on January 6th, 1912. Within four months, on April 24th, the village was declared a town. First civic election on June 1st installed H. S. Northwood as first mayor of the town. Councillors J. E. Bonsall, L. Burgess, A. C. Bury, A. Keith, A. Munn and W. J. McNeil with W. D. Guthrie - Secretary-Treasurer
    With the first election satisfactorily behind them, the total populace joined in a celebration. An impromptu dance was held in the hall over the drug store, followed by a torch light parade around the town. By then they were hungry so they descended en masse on the Chinese restaurant and filled up on fried eggs, dry bread and coffee. The sun by this time, peeping over the Nose Hills ushering in a new day and a new era. If some projection of the future hardships, crop failure and poverty could but have been flashed before them would they have stayed?
    Almost as a presage of things to come the fall of 1911 produced a good looking crop but an early frost hurt it badly, and over 1000 acres of wheat and flax of Max Maloum's was burned, still standing. A Mr. G. Stankey had 700 acres of wheat that all graded feed. Consequently the government had to supply seed for the 1912 planting and a fair crop was garnered. The A.P. Grain Co. built an elevator in 1912.
    That these pioneers were very conscious of the future was demonstrated when the McEwen & Robinson new store was built. Mrs. Robinson, the first lady to come to Coronation, set the first few bricks and placed a sealed jar containing some contemporary artifacts in the wall. During the 60's and 70's this building was known as Stubbs' Store.
    In September of this year the first of many fall fairs of the Coronation Agricultural Society was held and in the same month the new Post Office building was occupied by Postmaster Smith.
    A skating rink was built which provided much enjoyment for old and young alike, and in November of 1912 a curling rink was built. Ed Bartlett put up the building for 30% of the cost of lumber and hardware plus one share. The Agricultural Society had their fair grounds about one mile north of town where they also established a very good half mile race track. Horse racing and sulky racing were taken very seriously in those years, and were of excellent quality.
    The year end report for 1912 indicates no slacking off of construction. Board of Trade building was under construction. C.P.R. round house and machine shop almost finished, one new brick general store; J. C. Calder new brick drug store; Bergert and Webb - a two-story flour and feed store. E. R. Haney - a block with general store, a harness shop and a hall over head; Farmers Hardware; a new two-story Post Office building; J. Lankin - a two-story restaurant; McConnell and McAllister - a two~story office building; Watchorn Co. - a two-story store building; A. F. Malery - an office building; A. P. Larson – a butcher shop; Fox – store; Imperial Meat Co. – a two-story building; Chinese restaurant; Agricultural Society founded the race track. Tender of $30, 880.00 lent to Horton & Wiltse for a brick school. The population at this time was between 800 and 1000 residence.