Friday, April 25, 2008

25 and 50 Years Ago

On Wednesday April 23rd, the Red Deer Advocate posted a couple of brief stories worth repeating here. (http://www.albertalocalnews.com/reddeeradvocate/lifestyles/Kerry_Wood_wins_second_GG_award.html)

50 years ago
• Red Deer author Kerry Wood won his second Governor-General Award for literature in three years. Wood’s book, The Great Chief, won the medal in the class of books for juveniles.
(Kerry Wood's first GG award was for ‘The Map Maker’, the story of David Thompson, written in 1955. Kerry Wood wrote ‘The Great Chief’, life of Maskepetoon, Peace Chief of the Crees, in 1957.)


25 years ago
• At an expropriation inquiry, former city councillor Ron McCullough argued the city was trying to take his Glenmere Farms primarily so it could build a bridge over the river at 67th Street as recommended by a consultant. Parks planner Craig Curtis insisted the expropriation would protect the Gaetz Lakes sanctuary and allow room for a nature centre. “The sole purpose for acquiring this property is for parkland. Any other inference is incorrect and misleading.” The Kerry Wood Nature Centre was built in 1985; the bridge was built in 1987-88.
(The land that makes up the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary was assembled in part from provincial land in the southeast, part of the Red Deer Public School District #104's land in the southwest -- each purchased for $1.00 -- and the McCullough land, including the Allen Bungalow, which was expropriated.)

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