Notable People
Margaret Chappelle: The artist who saved the MacKinnon Ravine
Author Bruce Cinnamon | November 2, 2021
One friend had a more specific memory of Margaret “pushing a baby carriage in front of the bulldozers and then lying down in front of one.”[40] One historical account went so far as to describe Margaret “flinging her body in front of a bulldozer”[41] to stop the roadway construction. What is clear is that Margaret didn’t shy away from the fight—and in the end, she won.
No-one researches or writes a better story than friend of ERVCC, Bruce Cinnamon. A link to his story in the Edmonton City as Museum Project (ECAMP). ECAMP and more “River Valley” stories.
Gladys Reeves, 1890 - 1974
By Judith Golub
(ERVCC notes Judith passed away in 2022. To say Judith was an important part of the native plant community is a gross understatement)
“I love trees, I love beautiful home surroundings, & I want the visitors to our City to take home with them the impression that the People of Edmonton must love their City or they would not have taken the trouble to make it lovely.” (Gladys Reeves, 1925)
Gladys as River Valley Warrior, ©Marlena Wyman, artist. Used with permission.
An early Edmonton photographer, Gladys Reeves was said to be the first woman west of Winnipeg to run her own studio. One of her most significant contributions to Edmonton was her tireless advocacy for the beautification of our city and the preservation of the natural beauty of its ravines and river valley. She gave public speeches and wrote letters to newspapers and City Council to champion and defend Edmonton’s ravines and river valley. She campaigned to restore and preserve these city treasures, which at the time were being used for garbage dumps and other development that affected the beauty and environment of green spaces.
In a 1930 letter to the Edmonton Journal, Reeves protested road development in the river valley, writing: “Those of us who have lived among Edmonton’s ravines and river banks enough to know and love them, to have drunk in the beauty of the bursting leaf buds in the Spring; the restful swath of green in the Summer; the riot of colour during our Autumn days & the magic of Jack Frost’s artistry on a hoar frosty morning in winter… wonder if the real beauty is better viewed from the top road, rather than by cutting a gash right through the centre of these lines of beauty…”
Visit The Prairie Line, the blog of Edmonton’s 5th Historian Laureate, Marlena Wyman. The Gladys Reeves collection is also available for research at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.