By Andrew de Souza

Ideas for LaColle Falls still afloat

Aug 17, 2011 | 6:22 AM

It may be a dark chapter in the city’s financial and political history, but La Colle Falls and its failed dam project still has some value.

While it may not be powering the city to stratospheric heights in the way it was intended, it is proving to be an important archaeological location and potential tourism site.

Originally, the ball started rolling through the work of hydrological archaeologist Paul Van Pul. He was interested in the site in relation to his work on locks and dams across Canada.

“One day, I heard about La Colle Falls and I went there, found it and thought, this is great,” he said.

“Just walking around, you thought, wow, this is a lot of concrete, so why isn’t anyone doing anything about it.”

Court proceedings

Drugs and weapons bust in Stanley Mission, results in two year sentence

12h ago

health care

La Loche recipient of new portable blood analyzer, printer kit

14h ago

Crime

Dangerous driving report at Red Wing, leads to arrest of man with gun

17h ago

After his initial research he learned that the project was actually significant both locally and nationally and should be recognized as such. He went to city council with his idea that at the very least, the site should be considered historic and could also be the host of interpretative tours.

“It’s quite an interesting subject and in fact it should be a national heritage site, but nobody’s looked into it yet,” he said.

A lot of groups got behind the project and that serious consideration was given to the project by the federal government, Debbie Honch, executive director of Prince Albert Tourism.

“We brought SaskWater, Muskoday and James Smith (Cree Nations), the City of Prince Albert and the R.M. of Prince Albert and then we wrote a grant to do some work towards feasibility studies,” she said.

“That project was one that (the federal government) were really interested in. So we almost went ahead with phase one which was building a docking system here in the city.”

There were several ideas for the area including an interpretive centre and guided tours from Prince Albert along the river and back down to Batoche to tie everything in historically.

Unfortunately that didn’t pan out, and with the James Smith Cree Nation set to build their own dam on the river, the fate of any future use of the site is uncertain.

Despite that, Honch said the plans remain on the shelf ready for action. In particular, 2012 will be the centennial year for many buildings in Prince Albert and Honch said they’d like to include the dam in those celebrations since it was integral to their creation.

“We were hoping that there might be something that we could do with the Falls for “PA 1912” which we’re planning for next year and maybe that will get a little more impetus for the project.”

From the historical and archaeological perspective work continues as well.

Von Pul is set to host a talk on the failed project and its significance Saskatchewan Archaeological Society in September and said he’d like to continue his research at the site into the future.

adesouza@panow.com