Questions surrounding a fire that destroyed an historic Alberta church remain unanswered in regard to the site’s future and what caused the blaze.
On May 22, Municipal District of Bighorn fire crews were called to a fire at 4 a.m. at the McDougall Memorial United Church, a 142-year-old building on Highway 1A, just east Morley.
Crews arrived on scene to find flames ripping through the quaint old white church with the bell tower.
“The (church) was completely engulfed,” said Al Hogarth, an Exshaw firefighter who responded.
By 10 a.m., crews had extinguished the blaze and all that remained of the one-storey building was a roofless structure with fire-blackened walls and its bell tower nowhere to be found inside the foundation, with burnt wood and clutter.
A week after the blaze, the McDougall Stoney Mission Society, the group that preserves, maintains and interprets the site, is arranging meetings for this week with the province and heritage resources to figure out what is going to happen now.
The society made at least one decision this week they want the public to know about.
Commemorative services at the church were held on the second Sunday of June and September each year, and “no matter what” the society will host the service at the property this June.
“We weren’t sure if we were going to cancel, but we’ve decided to go ahead with the service being held on Sunday (June 11) at 3 p.m.,” said Sarah Harvey. “We encourage the public and community to come out and then we can give a big update on (the site’s future plans).”
Ahead of meetings this week, though, for the society and members of the community, the feeling is to rebuild a new church at the site.
“Everyone is anxious to rebuild; if we had the opportunity to we would have had it rebuilt already,” said Harvey, a 10-year volunteer and event planner for the society.
The church fire remains under investigation, although fire investigators aren’t labeling it as arson, reporting that it was “likely accidental” and “not set intentionally.
“(The fire was) suspicious to begin with; our fire investigator looks through it and looks for the origin of fire and that’s been determined,” said Exshaw Fire Chief Rick Lyster. “With the absence of witnesses and other evidence, that’s about as far as we can go right now.”
The cause of the blaze is undisclosed.
Harvey said the society plans to have its own insurance company investigate the cause of the fire sometime this weekend.
Hours before the fire ignited, a security guard checked the property at 8 p.m. on May 21 and everything was reportedly OK at that time.
“We know everything was fine at 8 p.m. (on May 21) and something happened between 8 (p.m.) and 4 (a.m.),” said Harvey.
There had been an attempted break-in last summer, and a few years ago an attempted arson as well.
A few charred items were pulled from the wreckage, but Harvey said the fire destroyed the majority of artifacts.
“It’s hard because it was such a nice site, it was such a special place, so it’s sad that it’s gone,” said Harvey. “Not even our bell – it just must have melted in the heat, and the pianos are a pile of ash. We lost a lot of cool documents and neat artifacts that are irreplaceable.”
The little church was built in 1875 to overlook Alberta’s grasslands slopes by Rev. George McDougall, son John, and a number of Stoney Nakoda members.
It quickly became a lively hub for over 200 community members of the first pioneer settlement in southern Alberta.
Due to its significance in Western Canadian heritage, McDougall Memorial United Church was designated a provincial historical site in 1959 and, in 2014 the MD of Bighorn chose it to become a Municipal Heritage Resource.
A GoFundMe page, an online fundraising website, called Rebuild Historic McDougall Church, has emerged in support of the remake by a community member.
Donations can also be made through any ATB Financial by mentioning the McDougall Church.
