While the McDougall Stoney Mission Society anxiously awaits word from the Alberta Government on whether the reconstruction of the historic church will be permitted, its members continue to press forward with a number of initiatives.

Society president Brenda McQueen is enthusiastic as she tells of the work now underway and how their vision for the historic site is unfolding.

“We’re waiting now to hear what the answer is but we’re still moving forward,” says McQueen. “We’re working with the Stoneys, we’re working with getting our events ready, we’ve established a historical team to start phase 2. So we’re working on a lot of things.”

Late last year, the society’s request for reconstruction included a second phase to expanded the interpretative walk to include the story of the Stoney People side-by-side with the Morleyville Mission.

It’s a component the descendant of Rev. George McDougall believes has long been absent.

“As a child, we were there together and that’s what we should be doing. I feel so strongly that in the last year and a half that I have been president we have reconnected and I want that story shown side-by-side.”

She says there’s plenty of room on the 43-acre site to expand the historical interpretation and there are clear outlines of teepee rings and the orphanage still evident.

A historical team has been formed and in the early stages of research.

“We will be working with the Stoney on that,” she says. “We’re just beginning to do this but that is our goal and I hope the provincial government accepts it.”

When the Morleyville Mission was moved to the current location in 1875, several mission buildings were constructed in addition to the church, which was the first Protestant church in southern Alberta. It included a house, orphanage, teacherage, barns, corrals and other structure. It was also briefly a hub for area settlers but, according to historians, that diminished after the Canadian Pacific Railway built its line south of the Bow River.

In May 2017, the church was set fire by an arsonist and a re-energized mission society emerged.

Two Significant Factors

McQueen outlined two significant factors that make the church’s reconstruction a possibility.

In 1985, a team from the University of Calgary completed an extensive account of its construction that includes written reports, drawings and three binders bulging with photographs of every little detail, right down to the nails and hinges.

“Because of that they are able to construct everything as it was in 1985,” explains McQueen. “If they didn’t have that we wouldn’t be able to present the proposal.”

Secondly, 80 to 90 per cent of the original logs used to construct the church can be reused, it was determined by Dave Chalmers, of Chalmers Heritage Conservation Ltd. His company dissembled the remains of the church last June, documented their condition and put them in storage.

While anxious to receive word, McQueen realizes there’s much that has to take place before reconstruction could begin.

“There are lots of stages we need to go through before we can reconstruct, even if they give us approval,” she says. “If we get approval we will meet with provincial government officials and find out what needs to be done next.”

Nick Austin created art utilizing the charcoal from the McDougall Mission Church. He displayed it during an art and music event at the historic church site last summer. (file photo)

Summer programming

The society is continuing to expand upon its summer programming introduced last year. They have 13 special events planned from May through to the fall. McQueen says they learned plenty from their initial offerings.

“We’re quite excited,” she says. “They will be bigger and better than last summer.”

Spreading the word

A request for a 20-minute presentation by Calgary’s St. David’s United Church has lead to the development of an extensive slide-show presentation that explains the past of the Morleyville Mission and aspirations of the society.

Several other showings of the presentations have since followed and McQueen hopes to use it to help spread the word of their work and gain further support.

“The response has been incredible. A lot of people are really excited to hear about it. I'm glad St. David’s asked for the presentation. It’s opened a whole new avenue by providing a visual and an understanding of where we started and where we’re going.”

Volunteers, members and fundraising

New society members are always welcome and there’s plenty of room for volunteers to lend a hand. They also continue to fundraise.

For information on all of this, you can visit www.mcdougallstoneymission.com.