Some images from the "Fabulous Fifties" Archives Week show. (Submitted photos/City of North Battleford Historic Archives)

By Angela Brown

"The Fabulous Fifties"

City planning annual Archives Week display

Feb 1, 2023 | 3:14 PM

The City of North Battleford is getting ready to host its 15th annual Archives Week display.

The event will be held at the Discovery Co-op Mall in North Battleford from Feb. 9 to 11.

Lynn Stace, City of North Battleford Archivist, said the theme of the event this year will be the Fabulous Fifties.

Stace said it’s always exciting to look back on the city’s fascinating history.

“Archives Week is a Saskatchewan-wide initiative hosted by the Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists. We participate every year,” she said.

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The local archives volunteer committee will be at the display in the mall from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., to talk with visitors. People can also take in the show at any time during the week, while the event is running.

Stace said there will be numerous items to view, as well as about 30 different display boards, all focusing on North Battleford’s history from the 1950s.

“During the research, they [the volunteer committee] discovered that North Battleford had [about] 23 service stations during that time,” she said. “So, there will be a big portion of the display on that as well.”

During this era, North Battleford was known as the Beaver City, inspired by the popular North Battleford Beavers Baseball team and the North Battleford Beavers hockey team.

The successful Beavers Baseball team actually represented Canada at the World Series competition in 1956.

The North Battleford City Kinsmen Band that started in 1949 was also going strong during this period.

“It was really a boom time for North Battleford,” Stace said. “During the ’50s, we were Saskatchewan’s fastest growing city.”

The show will include reproductions of photographs, along with newspaper articles and some maps as well,” she said.

The focus will be North Battleford, although there has been some expansion in the display to include some snapshots of the entire Battlefords area as well.

As another highlight of the week, the city is also planning an open house day at the Archives site in Room 111 at the Don Ross Centre (via entrance door #3), on Feb. 7 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“This will give people the opportunity to come by and see what our space looks like, and what we have,” Stace said.

Visitors will also be able to meet Stace and her volunteers.

“I think it will be fun,” she said of Archives Week’s activities. “We’re trying to expand it, and do different [activities] this year.”

Stace mentioned people who would like to access the City of North Battleford Historic Archives room collection for a project they are working on can also email the city archives department at any time in the future to book an appointment for their visit.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow