1845 - Development of Rundle Mission Area

Observations of the development of the site which is now identified as Rundle Mission included a number of natural features which remain to this day. These natural features observed were abundance of fish, an artesian well and healthy forested area for use of lumber to build the settlement area.

“In the mid-19th century Pigeon Lake became a gathering place for First Nations people from numerous tribes and therefore a desirable spot for the location of both a Hudson Bay Company Trading Post and a Christian Mission. In 1840, Rev. Robert Rundle, an English Methodist minister travelled through the area and prepared the following note in his diary. “Before I slept I went to the beach. What a spectacle. No sound was heard but the rise and splash of the fish in the lake. A slight ripple was all that was discernible on the lake. It lay almost like a sea of molten silver & the stars were reflected on its glassy breast. A mirrored heaven!” Five years later in 1845, several years before other high profile missionaries Father Albert Lacombe and Rev. John McDougall came west, Rev Rundle built a mission on the lakes north shore. His development opened in 1847, and included an “agricultural settlement”….

In 1882, the Mission was opened yet again, then closed for the “last time” at the turn of the century. The location is now considered both a Provincial and National Historic Site.”

Excerpt from the Crystal Springs history book “Pigeon Lake, Alberta…A Brief History”

Rundle Mission Lodge Historic Boardwalk

The trailhead sign tells about the history of the missionaries fur traders and Indigenous Peoples