Echoes From The Archives

Join us as we explore the fascinating history and stories of Medicine Hat with Jenny Berrientos, assistant archivist. Discover serendipitous discoveries, local legends, and hidden histories that connect the community and its past.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Land Acknowledgment
02:45 Exploring Harriet McCready's Legacy
05:45 The Mystique of Medicine Hat's History
08:53 Unusual Requests and Serendipitous Discoveries
12:03 The Truth Behind the Tunnels
14:53 The Archives: A Treasure Trove of Stories
18:07 Old Photographs and Their Secrets
20:56 The Evolution of Donations and Digital Archives
27:36 The Enigmatic Mrs. Bassett
29:25 Donations and Community History
31:19 Stump Jenny: A Fun Historical Quiz
33:19 Exploring the Archives: X-Files and Letters
38:38 Influential Figures from Medicine Hat
49:58 The Many Stories Behind Medicine Hat's Name

Archival expert Jenny Berrientos and host Brian Konrad unravel the mysterious tales, from underground bathrooms to secret vaults, and share bizarre stories like haunted watermelons and skittens. You’ll discover how seemingly trivial details, stray hair, old photos, and childhood letters, connect to a deeper, interconnected past full of serendipity and local legends.

We break down fascinating anecdotes: the extraordinary discovery of Harriet McCready, a Métis philanthropist whose story solved a 64-year family puzzle; the strange history of graves on Scholten Hill haunted by cries of a baby; and the puzzling origins of the city’s name, from indigenous legends to Victorian souvenirs. Jenny reveals how archiving the everyday reveals extraordinary stories, from ghostly portraits to lost streets and wartime secrets like the SFTS training school; plus unexpected revelations about the old gas wells, boxing rings, and even a famous artist from Medicine Hat’s past.

Why does this history matter? Because ignoring these stories risks losing a vital part of Medicine Hat’s identity, stories woven into the land, the people, and the city itself. Whether you’re a history buff, a conspiracy curiosity, or a lover of local legends, this episode invites you to see Medicine Hat through a completely new lens; where the line between myth and memory blurs. Dive into the archives, where the past whispers secrets just waiting to be uncovered. 

Ready to explore? Hit play and join us on this wild, wonderful journey through the hidden corners of Medicine Hat’s history. Perfect for history enthusiasts, mystery lovers, and anyone curious about how a small city’s legends shape its identity. This episode will change how you see the stories your town has been hiding. Don’t miss Jenny’s vivid tales and the surprising truths behind local rumours—because sometimes, the most unbelievable stories are just the beginning.

Resources

Esplanade Archives - https://www.esplanade.ca/services/archives-reference-services
Roloff Benny's Art Books - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Roloff+Benny
Medicine Hat Historical Society - https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Historical-Society-of-Medicine-Hat-District-61573961382458/

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again. And I'd like to ask you to do a favour. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please, like, share, subscribe. Tell your friends about bring back the porch. There are all kinds of rumors about the history of medicine. Yes. And one of them is the tunnels. Yeah. You know what? I'm. The tunnels are the funniest thing, because we get a lot of people who come in, and the first thing I say is, I was like, well, I'm going to. I'm going to let you down easy. There's no evidence of tunnels. And then there's, of course, the whole bandwagon of people who say, I knew you would say that, and or who paid you to say that. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. Well, I'd like to welcome you to a very special edition of Bring Back the Porch. As you can tell, we are not on the porch. We are in the Esplanade Archives reading room for the first edition of what I hope will be many episodes of echoes from the archives. I'm very pleased to introduce Jennie Barrientos, the assistant archivist at the Esplanade Archives here. The point of contact for many people when they come through those doors. Jennie has been a godsend to me when I was doing the art towns. When I started to redo them again around 20, 22, 23. If I needed images or pictures or background information. Jennie was my ace in the hall. So I'm glad that we get to do this because we have gone down many rabbit holes together. And I think tonight we'll probably go down a couple more, but welcome to the porch. Yes, thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. And obviously in the archives, there's no better place to have our our little discussion. So I think that's really great. I did want to take some time to say that, you know, we're really excited to be here in the archives, but we're also on, indigenous land here. So take a little time to do a land acknowledgment. We're on the border between treaty four and treaty seven. We're also home of the meeting. And more importantly for me, is to talk about the local connection to the history and to the land. So the indigenous people being stewards of this land is really important to me. I've learned a lot about medicine, hats, history, and a lot of it has to do with indigenous people specifically, with Saratoga Park. So we have a really wonderful long standing history of a meat settlement down in Saratoga Park. So, yeah, I kind of want to start off with a little bit of a land acknowledgment here, and also to discuss about some really exciting history and some, some really cool stuff that I've been talking about. There are so many stories hidden in the archives here. I've tried to tell as many as I could, but, maybe we can touch on a few of them tonight. And there's one individual that you wanted to start with. Yes. For sure. So I actually, is one of the, most serendipitous times that I had in the archives. I think it's because it seems so mystical and magical at the time. So for me, I got a question from Lorraine Marshall, actually. And so she came into the archives reading room, and she asked me, she had been out at the Ross Glen Park, so there was a park there, and it's named Harriet McCready Park. So learning came in and asked a question, as people always do to me, and she said, Who's Harriet McCready? And I said, I'm not too sure I will look into that for you. So I went I did a lot of research. I found some information, and I shared that with Loriene. That was really great. So we talked more about that. And Harriet McCready or McGarrity It depends on who you ask. The mentee names can get a little tricky with pronunciation. But it is an Irish last name, so McGarrity. So she is a meaty woman. She lived in Saratoga Park, and she was a philanthropist, so she was a big donor around Medicine Hat. She actually donated the, park equipment at Riverside or. Yeah, Riverside Park. So there's a lot of things there that are really cool about her. And so I told Lorraine and shared this information. And then the next day, a fellow walked in and he said, I'm looking for information about Harriet McGarrity And I said, of course, did Lorraine send you? And he said, Who's Lorraine? And I was like, okay, well, you know, I actually have a bundle of information about Harriet McGarrity. I can give you all of this information. And his eyes kind of welled up and he was like, this is so important to me. I did not know any of this information. And we're related. And it's a it's a situation where he didn't know that he was related to her. And so he found out also, you know, after all of this information, he found out he was Marty. So he did not know that either. So this kind of solved a 64 year puzzle for him. And this was all like it was one after another. I just thought, what are the chances that one person would come in and ask me a question? And then the next day, unrelated another question. So we were able to share all this information. It was wonderful, I loved it. I actually went on the Saratoga Park, trolley tour, and I saw him again. I was sat down on the trolley and I was already ready to hear all the stories of Saratoga Park. And I feel this tap on my shoulder and I turn around. I was like, oh my goodness, it was him. And we hadn't even planned it out at all. I thought, this is just magical. I just thought it was wonderful. So, I shared a picture here of like, Harriet's there and Henry Acres in the centre. So Henry Acre was the last resident of Saratoga Park. So his house was torn down in 2010 after he moved out or was taken out of Saratoga Park, if you will. And so, he was there. And so he's related to the McGarrity family. So it's actually kind of all serendipitous how it all came together. So I wanted to just mention that because I just thought it was. So it just really reminds me of how all these things in Medicine Hat are all connected. And it's it was really exciting to me. And I just, I remember the look on his face, he's like, who's the grand marshal? I was like, why do you want to know about Harriet McGarrity So it's really interesting. Yeah. Sometimes the stars align. Exactly. We have a picture up there too. Yes, we do. It's very cool. So it's, a really interesting piece how all of the people were all connected, and it just. I feel this, like, presence in Medicine Hat. Like, sometimes people always want to talk about haunted things. Don't get me wrong, I love stuff that's haunted. I have a file, actually, at my desk. I call it the X files. It's like a little purple folder. I shouldn't say little because it's actually ginormous. And I put in anything that has any strange little piece I photocopied. I put it into the folder and I'm like, I can't wait for the day that I'm going to archive this. And they're going to be like, I can't believe that there's something called the X-Files. I was like, oh, yes, here you go. So yeah, I put these little bits and pieces into there. And so, I feel like Medicine Hat is so interconnected, like all these different things. It's more of, like an interconnectivity than it is haunted. But, you know, there are some pieces that are a little, maybe a little, maybe a little haunted here. In their defense. There was one story that you shared with me about, the former graves that were on the side of Shelton Hill. Yes. There actually is a, clip in the archives of a woman talking about how her grandmother said that when they walk by those graves at night, you can hear a baby crying. Yes, yes, that's Daisy Legare, and she's a woman who also lived in Saratoga Park. And, we have that oral history. We're very we're very happy to have some oral histories available in the archives that you can listen to. So you can still listen to that. And those graves are so interesting. Because they're kind of one of those things that everybody kind of knew that there were burials there, but nobody really thought too much about it. But then once there was a lot more of the, I guess, the building in medicine hats. So they did, you know, Shorten Hill and those sorts of areas. And then graves became unearthed and then it kind of rocketed into the into the spotlight to talk more about these graves in these burials. So yeah, very interesting. Strange requests you get and you get a. Lot of, oh my goodness. You told me many stories about how you sometimes get a request about something, and it leads you down a path that you did not expect to go on. Yes. And it definitely feels like it's, it's it's somehow it's all connected somehow. And it's like I sometimes tell these stories and I feel like people just won't believe me because, like, you won't believe what I heard at work today. But people come in with these questions like, there was a, there was a lady who came in and she felt like her house was haunted. So she swore up and down her house, listen to it. And she's like, I'm in South Ridge, so I need to find out the information about my house. I was like, okay, well, South Ridge a little bit, not as old as maybe you would think. So that was difficult to go try to figure this out and I'm looking through all this stuff and I'm trying to get gather information. I can't find anything that seems haunted about this house. And then I said, well, it looks like the old owner of the house used to work at the IGA Oh, okay. And she kind of leans forward and I'm like, okay, so this is somehow interesting to you. I was like, okay, well, I'll look more into this fellow. So then I look into it and I was like, well, it seems like he was involved with some sort of and I was like, I'm sorry, I have to read this to a toxic watermelon. She's like, oh my gosh, yes. I was like, yes. And she said, yes, yes, yes. Tell me more. Okay. Yes. So there were toxic watermelon. She's like, this is all making sense. I was like, I'm glad it is to you. And so I told her the story about how there used, there was watermelons that were at the IGA and they were sold and they were toxic. So they had to be taken away and tested. And it was a it was a scandal that had happened. And she said that. Yep. This makes total sense to me because every time I have a watermelon on my counter, it rolls off and it falls like, right? Yes. And she's like, so the haunted watermelon, I'm like, yes, you are. Yes. I'm glad I could have been there for that. And so I printed her the paper of the Haunted Watermelon, and I gave it to her and she was happy. She was like, I'm going to plant watermelon seeds in my backyard to appease him. I'm like, oh, fantastic, he's not dead. But that's okay. Go on, go on with your stories. So yeah, it's it's some of the questions I get her are very interesting, but there's everything here that you can find. And it's kind of like going down that path as we go through. Yeah. And you never know where it's going to lead you. Definitely not. I got a phone call and this person came and. And he was phoning from, the United States and he phones and the first thing he says on the phone says, don't hang up. Okay? This is starting quite strange. And he's like, the news won't take my calls. So I really need you to answer this phone call for me. I'm like, you've got me, I'm hooked. So of course I'm laser focused. I want to know what this guy's talking about. And he ends up telling me he's like, did you know that cats and skunks can breed? And I'm like, no, I can't say that. I have heard that before. And he's like, yes. So I'm looking for an article in the 1960s, of the Skitten of the cat skunk hybrid skit in Skitten. Yes. And so, he's like, this is very urgent. My lawyer needs this. I was like, is your lawyer? He's like, it's$1 million question. I'm not kidding. It's $1 million. I need you to find this for me. I need you to tell me who took the picture of the skitten. And so I will absolutely do my best for you. And I'm, like, on the phone and. And my colleague Phillip kind of pops his head out of his office and he kind of whispers, is everything okay? Like, yeah, it's fine. So then we go down and I try to find and lo and behold, there is an article about this kitten. They found this in Redcliff of all places. They found this kitten, and, they took a picture of it and it goes in the to the newspaper and he and I said, yeah, I found it. I can email it to you. He said, oh, you're a doll. I love the perfect. And so I sent him the article, this kid and he's like, now the person who took it, Mr. Brewster, took the photo. Can you tell me if he's dead? I'm like, okay, what does that have to do with the story? And he's like, well, it's about copyright. So it matters to me if the person who took the photo, if he died before 1974, it's free and clear of copyright. I'm like, all right. Yep. For sure. So then, of course, now I'm looking up grave markings to try to find if this fellow is dead and and all of this because of the skin. So, he did die, before 1974. So, the kitten is free and clear of copyright. And so we have gone and given the permissions for it. And the picture of this kitten lives on, so. But did you get a kind of the million dollars? I can't say I'm legally obligated. That's a secret that will go to your grave. Can't accept gifts, but. No, he did send me, over the phone. He said he sent me love and light to myself and all of my ancestors. So I felt very, like that was enough for me. Yeah, that was a very interesting question I got. There are all kinds of rumors about the history of medicine. Yes. And one of them is the tunnels. Yeah. You know what? I'm. The tunnels are the funniest thing, because we get a lot of people who come in, and the first thing I say is I was like, well, I'm going to. I'm going to let you down easy. There's no evidence of tunnels. And then there's, of course, the whole bandwagon of people who say, I knew you would say that, and or who paid you to say that. You know, I'm like, well, no, honestly, it's kind of one of those stories where, we have a lot of things in Medicine Hat, but I don't really think we have the evidence that I can give you about the tunnels. There were a lot of, underground things. Like, I did find some underground, bathrooms at City Hall. As I was looking through some pictures, you could see some pictures. And apparently it was underneath the sidewalk in front of City Hall. So there was a panel on the sidewalk that they would lift up. And then under there, it would be stairs that led down to a set of bathrooms. So that but then, of course, people say, underground bathrooms, underground tunnels. It's a logical conclusion. But not so much. So, as far as I'm aware, there's nothing that would indicate that we have a series of tunnels beneath. But we were where we are in the Escalade. There used to be a post office. Down below. Us, here, down below us, and so below us. There was a post office. So there was also the what they call the bunker. A lot of people call it a bunker. It's not, in fact, a bunker. It was a civic civic defense hospital. So basically it was an overflow hospital. So the idea of that was if something were to happen to the original hospital, they were able to then use this as overflow. So if there was catastrophic nuclear events, they would use the overflow hospital. And, it's it's really like we have a picture of it. We have one picture of it. Thank you to Tim McShane for sending that to us. And it's not very exciting. But it was something that very few people knew about. That is true. Yes. And unfortunately, when we got to it and so the post office was getting demolished, there was really nothing really left there. So it used to have courts and maybe like some medical supplies and things like that. But by the time that we were able to get in access to it, I say we I wasn't there, obviously, but it was emptied out. So it was pretty much empty hole with nothing in it. So it's not as exciting as the bunker. And of course people then say, oh, sure, there were tunnels that led from the bunker to the hospital to the. And no, not as far as we're aware. Yeah, so I did I was asked that question once, and I went to, a long time resident, Jim Sharp, because his story was touching and sharp. On Thursday, I asked him and he said, no. He said, I've never heard of anything, although he said there was a door between his building and the one next door, him to go back and forth. And he also heard a story two that, once upon a time, city workers found a vault, on Sixth Avenue and Third Street that appeared to have been used for, probably card games or, you know, yes, illegal drinking, that type of thing, because there was some these on a shelf there, but that's just cause to being a tunnel story, as I can give you. Yes. Then I heard that there was a boxing ring below the corona, because the, the corona used to have a on the side of it, there was a theatre, so and it actually looked exactly the same as Monarch theatre, the old style with the arch and everything. It was modeled exactly the same, but it was on the side of the corona. So the theory is, is that, you know, it would have angled downward because it was a theatre. So then when the theatre was removed, they then used it for other, possibly a little bit below city areas. And so they used it for a boxing ring. And apparently it was a horse stable for a while as well. So, but not necessarily a tunnel. Maybe more of, like a reusing of some space, I think. I think I heard a story to that, that also at one time was used as a bowling centre. So. Yes, exactly. I'm sure it would have been like, great to roll your ball right out. That was the. Town hall, right where. The theatre used to be. Yeah. So and, you know, a lot of that old infrastructure of medicine that's too bad that it's gone. Now, I that arch of the monarch and the in the corona that those are so beautiful. We do have pictures in the archives. And so we a lot of the time with these photos that we have, it's a lot of our online access that you can see. So if you want to take a look through that, I always love to talk about our website because sometimes people do come in and they go, I really am really looking for a photo, and I'm looking for a photo of Finley Bridge. And I go, yep, we got hundreds of them on our website and they go, what website? So we have over 100,000 photos scanned available on our website. So 100,000, 100,000. You've probably seen all of them. You may have. I feel like I that anybody you might have you might need them. So yeah you can click through, grab some popcorn and and go through all the photos. It's not there's more Fulton on on ostrich. There's everything you could ever think Morton Fulton. Yes. What a wonderful guy. Yeah. Very strange, but yes. So yeah, that's kind of our, our excitement of all the photos now. But you, you have a photo that I love too, with the, I like to call it the old timey Photoshop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have that one up there. Yes. That photo there is one that I giggle that the first time I saw it, because you look at the young boy and the the lady. Yep. They are obviously bean paste that on top of a picture of where the original ballpark was. At the end of, of the bridge there, the CP rail bridge, that's about 1910. You can see the water pipe in the picture. You can see the old armory. And there's another shot taken. Of course when the ball park is there, we just I always found it interesting why they put it over there. But that's where it was. It was the I think they called it the exhibition grounds as well. Yes. Yeah. Kinds of different things. They, they troops from the First World War would, parade there as well in that picture, too. You can see across the river there, the, long building. Yep. That's the old curling rink. Yes. Yeah. And that's where Maple Avenue Bridge is today. Yes, exactly. I looked at that photo for numbers of difference of reasons, and you can, you can zoom in to different pieces and parts to try to get some different answers. We were looking for some old gas wells. That's a big thing that people use old photos for. They're trying to find locations of gas wells because they used to be everywhere, and now they have to be capped and monitored. So yeah, underneath the the curling rink, there was a gas wells. So that, had to be capped off as well. So there's lots of different pieces that you can look into these old photos and find. But yeah, the the old timey Photoshop is one of my favourite pieces we have. We have one that's kind of spooky too, because, they took a photo at a funeral, and so there's an empty there's there's a set of pictures. One of the pictures is empty in the centre. There's no one there. So they're all set up on either side. And then the other picture, is a picture of the person who's deceased, but they've propped their eyeballs open, and then they glued them into the centre. I did not include that photo. Because it's very creepy. Once you know the answer. So then they glued them into the centre, and then it looks like he's a part of his own funeral. I'm not too sure stylistically why you would choose to do such a thing, but, Yeah, it's all sorts of different photos. And you're looking at them and going, wow, okay, I'm going to just put that back. Now there is another picture there too. A color photo, colorized photo of Athletic Park. And what I like about that is that you can see along the left field fence there that, running on the right side of that's where the bottle depot is now. And that was called Bank Street. Yeah. Bank Street does not exist anymore. We've had, we've had quite the time trying to find Bank Street, haven't we. Yeah. And you able to run across what is now out on the drive and up into the hill. But there was, actual street there called Bank Street. Yes. And medicine that changed the name of the streets in 1914. So that threw everything for a loop. Do so every time people come and do research, it's kind of like I have to send them down these different paths. Oh, and by the way, the street names all would have changed. And oh, by the way, they rerouted Seven Persons Creek. So what you thought was on the north side is now on the south side. We chased around the isolation hospital for a while too, because that was back when tuberculosis was a thing, which hopefully is still not. But, they had an isolation hospital. And so that was down by Seven Persons Creek. And so what happened was, is that it seemed like the isolation hospital was moving around, going on different streets. So it was on Spencer and then it was on Kipling and all these different. I'm like, what is going on? Are they picking up this hospital and moving it? But instead they were actually digging out Seven Persons Creek. So it used to be kind of serpentine moving through. And they decided that we want to just have it as a straight line. So they gave a guy a shovel and they said, dig this out. His name was Mr. Black and they, he wanted they wanted to straighten it out. So they gave him a summertime and a shovel, and he by hand straightened out seven Persons Creek, which made it so that the isolation hospital moved from one side of the creek to the other side, because Mr. Black actually dug it out by himself. And I think Mr. Black had to go to court to get paid. He sure did. Yep. That was one of the first court cases that the City of Medicine had ever had. Was, the contractor said that he was going to pay Mr. Black his wages for digging out this creek, and the contractor got on a train with the money and hightailed it off to Winnipeg, never to be heard again. And Mr. Black went city medicine hat. I want my money. So then that was one of the first court cases that the city had to go through at the time. So it was big news. It was all over the place that Mr. Black was, suing the city for his wages. So, yeah, it's kind of interesting. A lot of people come here looking for family history. And you get some odd requests there, too. Oh, yes. We've had quite a number of odd requests, and some of them even happened from, different countries. So we have a lot of connection, like there's a big Germans from Russia connection here in Medicine Hat as well. But we've had a lot of people who, there was a fellow from the UK that, that called and said that he wanted to find information about a little girl named Betty Jane, and he said, unfortunately, I don't know her last name. I don't know how old she is, but what it is, is I have a stack of letters that were kept. And so he was trying to figure out what she had anything to do with. Like what? Why was she related to the family? Did she have anything to do with him? So then I ended up going through the census, and it's kind of interesting because out of all the places, at least in Medicine Hat, if you're looking for somebody without a last name and you don't know her age, you don't know anything about her. If you just know Betty Jane, if you do a search in the census, two of them come up in 1926, and one of them was the person who I was looking for. Needle in. A haystack. Needle in a haystack. Not something you could achieve in Toronto, I would assume. So in medicine. How we could. So we found her, and we still to this day don't really know the answer as to why there were these letters back and forth between the mother and the.