The Seebe General Store, which saw generations of Bow Valley customers step through its doors, was torn down to rubble this week. A construction crew bulldozed the building that sat idle for over a decade on Tuesday (Oct. 18).
The Seebe General Store, which saw generations of Bow Valley customers step through its doors, was torn down to rubble this week.
A construction crew bulldozed the building that sat idle for over a decade on Tuesday (Oct. 18).
TransAlta, owners of the building and land, was unable to make a comment before the Outlook's publication deadline.
While the company's two dams remain in operation, the Seebe townsite officially closed in 2004 and demolition of much of the infrastructure has occurred since.
Longtime Bow Valley residents would remember the store, which served as a post office, a gas pump, and a charming little general store, and have shared memories and surprise following its demolition.
Exshaw Fire Chief Rick Lyster remembers the store - not only did his parents, Ken and Doris, run it from 1947-80, they lived in the residence in the back until he was seven years old, along with his older brother and younger sister.
“I worked there as a teen in high school,” said Lyster. “Every Saturday, I served, pumped gas, and stocked the shelves, (and) a lot of the Stoney trade.”
He detailed the general store's appeal as a place of speciality items for Stoney Nakoda First Nation neighbours such as fabric Stoney women could use to make their own dresses.
It was a place where you could buy ammunition, one bullet at a time, something you could never do nowadays, Lyster joked.
When the family would visit Edmonton to stock up on supplies and drive home, there was barely enough room for Lyster and his siblings in the back seat and within a day or two, the new stock at the store would be almost sold out.
The general store was used to make money in a lot of ways.
“When Highway 40 was being built, my dad had a contract to supply groceries to the camps and I hauled groceries out to them,” he said.
Lyster's son would also work at the general store under different owners - Sheryl and Paul Patterson.
The Pattersons ran the store from 1997-2004, and found out on the day of it was scheduled to be demolished.
“I found out at 11:30 this morning,” said Sheryl. “I was in shock, but understanding too. The building is more than 100 years old and it's difficult for TransAlta to maintain it ... for us, though, it was the last tangible link to the community.”
The Pattersons moved east to Water Valley right after the townsite closed.
Sheryl says if you ask anyone from the Seebe community, everybody will speak of the general store as “legendary.”
The origin of Seebe harkens back to when Calgary Power Company Ltd. acquired the energy-rich land on the Stoney Reserve in 1909 and constructed two dams - Horseshoe Falls Dam and Kananaskis Dam - in the ensuing years at the confluence of the Bow and Kananaskis rivers.
It was during construction of these two dams that the Seebe settlement was born. Along with the general store, it consisted of 22 homes, a 17-room apartment complex, a multi-use one-room schoolhouse, and recreational structures.
By 1929, Calgary Power supplied electricity from the dams at Seebe to 98 communities across southern Alberta, including Exshaw's Canada Cement Company (now Lafarge).
From 1951 to the mid '80s, Calgary Power had a control centre in Seebe to manage all of its automated facilities until '85, when a new Calgary-based control centre opened. It marked the beginning of the end for the once prosperous little energy community.
While the dams still operate, the Seebe townsite officially closed in 2004.
