COMMUNITY

A Road Trip Down Memory Lane

Looking forward to AMA’s 100th anniversary, we look back at how we shaped the development of roads, highways and signage in the province.

IT'S 1920S ALBERTA. Cars have made their way up north and it looks like the new machines are here to stay. You’ve even invested in one yourself. On a whim, you decide a weekend in the mountains would be a relaxing getaway and pitch the idea to your family who are all in for the adventure. Everyone packs their bags and you load up the Model T before hopping into the drivers’ seat. “Alrighty, in two to three days, we will be in Banff!” you say. Your starting location is Calgary.

It’s hard to believe that a century ago, what is now a two-to-three-hour drive used to take a small handful of days. But with no highways, signs — or even paved roads — the trip was, well, bumpy. Taking a drive down memory lane, it’s interesting to see how roads, signage and laws have evolved; there are a number of great milestones on a century-long timeline to mention. Thanks to the public service and government lobbying efforts of Albertans and the auto clubs they’d form — including the Edmonton Automobile and Good Roads Association and the Calgary Automobile Association, which would eventually join to form the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) — road transportation started to take shape, literally, beginning in the early 1900s.

The Calgary fleet of the Victorian Order of Nurses poses in 1920. These were some the earliest women drivers in the province. | PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE GLENBOW MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES

BIG MILESTONES

In a black-and-white photo from 1911, two men attempt to use a pole to pry the back wheel of an early-model car from the mud. Two children are bundled up in the open back seat.

1908-1917

In a black-and-white photo from 1922, four men pose beside a sign at the summit of Yellowhead Pass.

1918–1922

1923

In a black-and-white photo, eight men crouch beside an early-model car with a sign reading “Jasper or Bust.”

1924

In a black-and-white photo, a Ford Model T with a broken front axle sits in a ditch.

1925

A black-and-white photo shows an open-top touring car with eight passengers on a dirt road in the mountains of Waterton Lakes National Park.

1926

In a black-and-white photo from the 1920s, a man stands beside his Junkers car as a horse-drawn lumber wagon passes.

1928

1929

In a black-and-white photo taken in 1943, four men in snowsuits with fur-lined hoods pose in an open-topped car.

1949

In a 1952 black-and-white photo, two women pose with their bicycles beside an AMA Mileage sign showing the distance from seven locations, including Calgary and Medicine Hat.

1962

A black-and-white photo shows AMA President Glenn E. Lockwood presenting the AMA’s Highway Signing and Route Marking in Alberta report to Deputy Premier Dr. Hugh Horner.

1975

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In a black-and-white photo from 1920, a nurse from the Victorian Order of Nurses stands beside an open-topped early-model car in 1920.

IT'S 1920S ALBERTA. Cars have made their way up north and it looks like the new machines are here to stay. You’ve even invested in one yourself. On a whim, you decide a weekend in the mountains would be a relaxing getaway and pitch the idea to your family who are all in for the adventure. Everyone packs their bags and you load up the Model T before hopping into the drivers’ seat. “Alrighty, in two to three days, we will be in Banff!” you say. Your starting location is Calgary.

It’s hard to believe that a century ago, what is now a two-to-three-hour drive used to take a small handful of days. But with no highways, signs — or even paved roads — the trip was, well, bumpy. Taking a drive down memory lane, it’s interesting to see how roads, signage and laws have evolved; there are a number of great milestones on a century-long timeline to mention. Thanks to the public service and government lobbying efforts of Albertans and the auto clubs they’d form — including the Edmonton Automobile and Good Roads Association and the Calgary Automobile Association, which would eventually join to form the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) — road transportation started to take shape, literally, beginning in the early 1900s.

The Calgary fleet of the Victorian Order of Nurses poses in 1920. These were some the earliest women drivers in the province. | PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE GLENBOW MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES