My Alberta: Edmonton After Midnight

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I've been travelling around Alberta lately trying to better understand the province I call home.

Tonight I discovered that sometimes you don't have to travel very far at all.

After midnight, I found myself walking through Edmonton's river valley near the John Walter Museum.

The old houses were illuminated beneath the trees.

 The moon was overhead. 

I could see the High Level Bridge in the distance and the Walterdale Bridge glowing across the river.


Nearby, hundreds of people were still outside enjoying an Edmonton summer night.

I realized how little attention I had paid to some of what was around me.

This place carries layers of history.
Long before Edmonton existed, Indigenous peoples lived, travelled, gathered and traded throughout the North Saskatchewan River valley.

John Walter became part of the area's later history in the 1870s.

 He eventually operated businesses here, including a ferry that carried people across the river before Edmonton had the bridges we recognize today.

Standing near his old home, you can now look toward the High Level Bridge, walk toward ÎNÎW River Lot 11∞ Indigenous Art Park, and see the modern Walterdale Bridge stretching across the North Saskatchewan.

Different generations.

Different peoples.

Different versions of Edmonton.

The same river.

That's what I'm increasingly interested in as I travel Alberta.

Not simply seeing places, but understanding what happened there. 

Who lived there.

 Who came later. 

What was built. 

What disappeared. 

What survived. 

And what the place means to the people living there now.

Tonight that exploration happened at home.

Sometimes we become so accustomed to our surroundings that we stop seeing them.

So perhaps discovering Alberta doesn't always mean heading for the mountains or driving hundreds of kilometres.

Sometimes it means parking the car in your own city after midnight and going for a walk.

There is an incredible amount of Edmonton hiding in plain sight.

My Alberta. 

One place, one community and one story at a time

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