Historius

Pearl Lorentzen Lakeside Leader When someone has lived a hundred years, a lot changes.  For 100-year-old, Alexandra ‘Senny’ Fedorus, the economy is the biggest one.  “When I worked for $10 a month, it was good wages,” she says. “And now…

Joe McWilliams Lakeside Leader Reinhold Eben-Ebenau had no particular plans to put down roots on the shores of Lesser Slave Lake. The young German immigrant from East Prussia arrived in town in June of 1930. He was a year into…

Joe McWilliamsLakeside Leader The ship Gunnar Persson came from Sweden to Canada in June of 1929 had a long and illustrious history. Built in Newcastle, England in 1924 for the Swedish American Line, it served for many years as an…

Joe McWilliams Lakeside Leader “I can’t say enough about him,” says Diana Spilak of her late father Emil Persson. “He was the best guy. Honest as the day is long. Hard-working.” That was part of Spilak’s response to the question,…

Pearl LorentzenLakeside Leader “Times were so rugged in the thirties and early forties,” Mabel Nelson reminisces about homesteading in Moose Portage in Echoes Along the Athabasca River.  During a windstorm in late January, the roof blew off the Moose Portage…