With many thanks to Elaine Power, who mailed these to me in . . . the fall!! Busy winter, and ended up having to use a professional scanner to get them properly. Quality isn’t great, but they’re readable, especially if you print them out. A snapshot of the town at its peak in the late ’50s. There was, I believe, a half-dozen newspapers in Uranium City at that time. I’m still trying to find the piece about UC written by journalist Des Fogg in 1959. A classic piece, the more so since the first crash came later that year.

Some highlights:

In the Local Items section of Northland News, it seems John Grierson, driving force behind the NFB and noted documentary film-makers, visited Uranium City. He stated that he was “Greatly impressed with the potential of the North, particularly Fort Smith and Uranium City”. As well, an inquest into the death of one William Malkowich, employee of Gunnar Mines, who fell into oil tank which he had been dismantling at Nesbitt-Labine. And the announcement of the opening of a new hotel in Fort Smith (Many Uranium City residents are expected to attend the opening), which, in the sketch at least, bears a great resemblance to the hotel that was built in Uranium City after the first burnt down.

The Uranium News, while certainly more amateurish in its presentation. has some interesting content. Under the headline ‘Spring’: “We are inclined to favor and support the opinion of those who connect the freakishness of the weather in some way with the setting off of those bombs” Which bombs, I wonder? Later, in District Briefs, comes the announcement that the winter road from Fort MacMurray north to Old Fort Bay on Lake Athabasca has been completed, along with news of a boom hitting Fort MacMurray ‘upon the announcement of extensive and long-continuing operations” by a company called Royalite on Athabasca River bituminous sand deposits. “Estimates of the potential population of the area to a rumored ‘Open’ . .. that is non-company town with 7000 people”.

Hope you enjoy these snapshots from the past. Click on each image to download/view the PDF.