1883 CPR plan for the Medicine Hat townsite.--IMAGE COURTESY Esplanade Archives
Visitors to our city often comment on the convoluted street layout. Unlike the grid patterns common to many flat Prairie cities, Medicine Hat has to contend with rivers, rails and creek coulees.
The defining geographic characteristic of the Medicine Hat Coulee is the South Saskatchewan River. It has carved its own route for eons. The Canadian Pacific Railway selected this location as the best place to cross the river, in part due to the easy grade down the Ross (Plume) Creek Coulee. The CPR bridge – or the ferry – was the only way to get to Riverside until 1908 (Finlay Bridge). Although the Seven Persons and Ross Creeks have been redirected by engineers, those creeks still restrict traffic flow.
Getting out of the river valley bottom in any direction was a challenge in horse-power days. The cart trail east to Maple Creek/Fort Walsh followed the current 41A Porter’s Hill alignment (more or less).
There were two trails to Dunmore Junction, either adjacent to the tracks or the more direct route, now Dunmore Road. Going west toward Fort Macleod was via Macleod Trail, which grinds its way up a draw out of the river valley.
In the 1930s, my father and his buddies operated a clapped-out Model T Ford so lacking in power that the only way to get from downtown to the Southeast hill where he lived was to reverse up Macleod Trail. Since there was a large seasonal slough where Safeway, Hill Pool and Hat High are located, I speculate that the trail continued along the north bank, Fourth or Fifth streets, and from there west overland.
Early streets (think mud or dust) were laid out perpendicular to the railway on both sides and up the Southeast Hill: Main, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Braemar, Balmoral – although Hill streets were later renamed Aberdeen, Belfast, Cambridge, Dundee.
Numbered avenues were parallel to the rails. However, the CPR will have to explain the confusing N. and S. Railway streets, which should be more logically E. and W. Railway avenues.
The realities of the Township survey system imposed the north south east west grid, based on Division and Allowance Avenues, as the city grew in the early 1900s.
After the Second World War, planned neighbourhoods have been developed based on curvilinear collector roadways with attached crescents and cul-de-sacs, known in planning circles as “loops and lollipops,” and variations thereof. The only way to navigate Ross Glen is with GPS!
One glance at a map of the city will reveal the different eras of development. I’m sure our planners would love to take out their magic markers and redraw the lines!
Malcolm Sissons is vice-president of the Historical Society of Medicine Hat & District.
