The legacy of river lots evident today

River lots once made up much of the land in what is now central and eastern Edmonton. In an article “Edmonton’s River Lots: A Layer in Our History,” Thompson notes that as the area’s fur trade was winding down, farming took on more importance in the lives of people around Fort Edmonton, and many that farmed used the river lot style originating in Métis culture. This style provided access to the river, as well as wooded areas, cultivated land and space for hay land. Thompson says that in many ways the early history of these river lots is a history of the Métis kinship networks, with marriages common among the area’s families, as well as friendship and support systems.

A survey in 1882 formalized the system creating 44 large lots along both sides of the North Saskatchewan River, stretching from where Groat Road is now east to the Strathcona refineries. (Groat Road gets its name from Malcom Groat’s river lot.) Lots on the north side of the river were given even numbers, while those on the south side had odd numbers. Thompson says while there were river lots on both sides of the river, there were differences between those on opposite banks.

Thompson explains that “a lot of the folks that settled on the north side of the river seemed to have closer ties to the Hudson’s Bay Company”.

Things were different on the south side of the river: “The residents of these river lots tended to have lots of ties with the Papaschase Band… That led to some of the hardships for the southside river lot residents that the northside residents didn’t necessarily face as much.”

Thompson says many of the difficulties southside families faced related to their Indigenous identities, including scrip. Métis scrip was a one-time payment of money or land that extinguished their Indigenous land rights. It was often used unethically by the authorities, and Thompson says many families on the southside river lots took scrip and ended up leaving for places like St. Paul des Métis, Cooking Lake, Tofield and St. Albert.

Thompson notes one of the southside river lot residents facing special hardship was Laurent Garneau, for whom the Garneau neighbourhood is named. Laurent and his wife Eleanor arrived on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River in 1874. They settled on River Lot 7, between present day Streets 109 and 112. Laurent was Métis and had fought with Louis Riel in the Red River Rebellion before coming to the Edmonton area.

“His past associations with Louis Riel really got him in trouble,” says Thompson. “He was actually imprisoned during the 1885 Northwest Resistance.”

After his release, Garneau became an entrepreneur, selling wood, coal, food, land and fur. He and Eleanor were also cultural and social leaders on the south side of the river.

After the river lots were surveyed in 1882, much of the land was quickly swallowed up by Edmonton’s rapid growth, especially on the north side. 

Thompson says the evidence of the river lot survey can be seen today. For example, the odd angle of the McCauley neighbourhood due to how river lots 6 to 20, which abutted the Hudson’s Bay Reserve, were surveyed. The survey also resulted in University Avenue’s unusual angle. 

On the south side of the river, as the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway was being built in the early 1890s, river lot owners who sold them became very rich. By the turn of the 20th century, River Lot 5 became the site of the University of Alberta while River Lot 3 became the Windsor Park neighbourhood. But some of the lots in what is now southeast Edmonton would not become urbanized until the 1950s.

An example of that was Daniel Webster Warner’s farm on River Lot 39, which became today’s Gold Bar neighbourhood. Lots 35 and 37 were annexed by the City of Edmonton in 1954 and became the neighbourhoods of Fulton Place and Capilano. Much of River Lot 43 to the east became the Strathcona refineries.

A present day Edmontonian looking for a reminder of the river lot days can find one in Queen Elizabeth Park. It is ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞. It evokes many aspects of Edmonton’s history and contemporary Indigenous art is spread throughout the area.  

Thompson is hopeful that more people take the time to learn about Edmonton’s history.

“I was just so fascinated with how important the Métis history of this place is to the urban development that eventually happened in Edmonton,” he says. “I think the river lots are a vital component of Edmonton’s history… Even the names we still use to this day: Groat, Garneau, McKernan… All these names come from former residents of river lots. Personally, I would love it if river lot history was better known to residents of Edmonton. ÎNÎW park is such an interesting example of how this history can be woven into the form of the city today.”