Born and raised in the US. I always wondered what happned to the black folks who left during and after slavery. This is beautiful. I never knew about this.
Thank you for sharing this information. I hope that Canadian Social Studies textbook publishers will add this to students curriculum in future years if they have not already.
What an inspiration. Coming from Texas and going to Alberta, Canada is a major change of life style, showing determination and resolve that can reside in each of us. It shows that courage and commitment will get us a long ways. Determination can be fired by desire for freedom, no matter how hard the lifestyle is, no matter how cold it gets, there is wonderment in freedom - the ability to build a neighborhood of basics: a fun time with sports, friendships, respect and love for one another. What a precious memory of ancestors who had this courage.
Born and raised in Alberta (Cold Lake) (Calgary) and I have never heard of Amber Valley - thank you for sharing and this is definitely a story that needs to be told
FYI this year during Black History Month, my son’s teacher was speaking about Amber Valley in Social Studies class and the contributions that the people from that community have made to Alberta. My son was the only child in the class who knew about Amber Valley as my family is from the area and my dad and uncles have shared stories of their experiences with the people from there. It was such a remote area with very difficult living conditions that my uncle was 14yrs old when he had seen a black man for the first time and he was born and raised in the area. My dad always says that it is not the end of the world up there but it is pretty darn close. I am glad the history is being told now. Canada Post even made a commemorative stamp of Amber Valley in Feb 2021.
My father was a 1st baseman with the Weasel Creek baseball team. He always talked about how good the Amber Valley team was. Amazing baseball players. There is absolutely NOTHING available out there about the Mysterious Alberta Amber Valley . Thank you finally!
Thanks for this…my family were part of that migration and settlement. My Great Grandfather Jason Calvin Jones settled there. Through marriage we were related to other founding families.
I remember in school when they'd teach us history in Toronto...always knew it was incomplete because it had nothing to do with me a Black Canadian or any other miniority for that matter. Again we all have been robbed of our rich Canadian history due to fear and ignorance.
Why would they teach about Amber Valley in Toronto? It's a small community in North Central Alberta that had very little to no influence on Canada or Western Canada. Local history is not even taught in the Alberta school system so it's very unlikely that you would learn about Amber Valley in Eastern Canada
@@greatwhitenorth5280 Would have been nice to at least know about the Underground Railroad....we had nothing related us. Absolutely nothing. Even now we know more about American Black experience than our own.
Thank you for sharing, if you ever want to do a follow up story,,,my father James Kenneth Hinton Sr. was raised in Amber Valley with his Aunt and Uncle Rebecca and Thomas Mapp. I got goosebumps watching this video as the names and images were shown. There is definitely a mini series worth of historic tales. As a descendant of this Athabasca community of Amber Valley I am proud to share the Tales of my Grandfather Richard who came from the south with his sisters and helped weave the fabric of Canada's Black history. The parts about the baseball awesome and the Rail companies is how my Grandfather built his business's in Vancouver. Heck Jimi Hendrix and his brother Leon used to visit family in Amber Valley too.
james jr You should write your stories down or at least have someone record you telling them! I was born in 1964 and grew up on a farm outside of Olds. My father was the son of poor Germans who had immigrated from Russia to the United States in the early 1900's, then later on came to Canada where my grandparents homesteaded. My father can't read because he had to quit school when he was nine and didn't even know how to speak English when he started school. He worked in the fields for a farmer for 50 cents a day to help out his family. He's 93 years old now and still keeps cows and horses. I keep meaning to record him while I ask him questions to record events that no one will know about once he's passed
My daughter is a descendent of Joseph maze/ Boyd and Myrtel Wagner,,we know they were from Amber Valley,but know little about them,just that the struggle was real.We also have pictures that we wish we could identify her relatives,,
Such an amazing story! I remember growing up in Edmonton, AB and seeing a black and white photo on the outside of a red bricked Grand McEwan Building College (it wasn't a university at that time). The photo captured a black family riding an wagon. I thought to myself OH MY GOD, Black Canadians have been here long before my family?! (my parents immigrated to Canada in the late 1980s). You mean to tell me that there is someone that looks like me!? I cannot tell you how many times I that about that photo and searched for answers that same how never come to light. I cannot tell you how many times was I've been the only black child/ teenage/ or adult in the room. Be that at the doctors office, elementary school, jr high, and even high school. Today I'm able to tie those pieces together. This needs to be taught in the Alberta's school curriculum. We often remember Black Americans for Black History Month but never talk about Black Canadians that have contributed to Canadian history, innovation, legacy and development. Thank you for bring this story to light and capturing a much needed ray on what it means to look and be Canadian.
This is an amazing piece of Alberta history! The title says it all: Secret Alberta! I'm almost 70 years old and had never heard of this astounding story of determination and survival.....with sweet and proud memories. This needs to be shared!
I have not heard that many including my family members of hayes, Taylor, edwards, love, crawfored relocated because many Chickasaw & Chickasaw freedman were turned down by dawles roll, then relocated to Amber Valley. My great grandfather, frank taylor hayes was the brother of franklin and father of William crawford hayes. My grandfather was David hayes walcott bn. June 10, 1894, after a name change and naming his son, my father Dekalb E. Walcott, bn April 12, 1931, slayden, ms.
This is one of the most even-handed documentaries I've ever seen. The descendants of the original Amber Valley settlers seem to recall both the good parts and the bad parts of the community's history vividly. I'm very glad to have seen this documentary.
I grew up near Athabasca and I recognize all these names in the video. I took the bus to school in Athabasca and students from Ferguson by Amber valley also came by bus to school in Athabasca. I remember driving through Amber Valley with my parents and the houses were painted beautiful colours. My family also occasionally attended a country church in Paxson just southwest of Amber Valley which was attended by families from Amber Valley and Ferguson. Families from the Black communities east of Athabasca also came to the church that I attended in Athabasca.
Awesome, being a native Albertan as well as my father raised in Edmonton and having worked in the Athabasca region I have never heard of Amber Valley. Thank you for providing this great insight.
My prayer today is that all people can live free from discrimination, oppression, hate and violence. I pray that all people will have true equality and fairness in the communities in which they live.
As an alberta this really makes me proud, grew up close to Amber Valley, i knew of it since a very young age. Respect everyone, we are all in this together.
Thanks to the team that made this, and thanks to StoryHive for helping fund projects like this. Canada has a rich history that needs to be shared and told.
Very cool documentary. I didnt know much about Amber Valley before watching this, glad to know! Keep up the great work preserving your history & culture in Alberta!
I have been aware of Amber Valley for a long time, actually drove by there last year but there was nothing of significance (signage, etc.) as far as I could tell regarding it's history.
I live really close to Amber Valley. Really great to have these stories told and remembered, I know there are occasionally music events at the hall there, I'm hoping to make it to one soon
24.5 km east of the Grand Union Hotel in the town of Athabasca on highway 55. The Union is on the corner of Highways 2 and 55. There is a museum at or near Amber Valley, some buildings and homesteads remain. The area changed quite a bit with the economic challenges of farming, and the opening of a large pulp mill nearby in the 90's. If you're ever at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, you can view an exhibit there that includes a "Toles School" replica. www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/phase2/mod7e.html
@@Ironfurnaceroom The construction of the Alpac mill completed the demise of this version of the community of Amber Valley. Changes to farming and agriculture, society in general through the 70's and 80's already saw people of all stripes leaving rural Alberta for better jobs and living conditions. Alpac facilitated a huge demographic change in the area in the early 90's, and now the last couple of years the area is becoming populated with settlers from another land. Newfoundland.
GoogleMaps is really helpful. I used it as soon as I saw this video, in order to get my bearings, but also to see how far it is so we can go for a drive and see the area.
We are indigenous to the entire planet. Peace.
Amazing history - Coming from Ontario...i was not aware of this community.- Thank you.
Born and raised in the US. I always wondered what happned to the black folks who left during and after slavery. This is beautiful. I never knew about this.
My Nana is Effie Jones...from Amber Valley. This was great!
Thank you for sharing this information. I hope that Canadian Social Studies textbook publishers will add this to students curriculum in future years if they have not already.
Thank you for sharing your history and memories 🙏🏽I learned something i didn't know before God bless you all!
Great documentary. Beautifully done!
What an inspiration. Coming from Texas and going to Alberta, Canada is a major change of life style, showing determination and resolve that can reside in each of us. It shows that courage and commitment will get us a long ways. Determination can be fired by desire for freedom, no matter how hard the lifestyle is, no matter how cold it gets, there is wonderment in freedom - the ability to build a neighborhood of basics: a fun time with sports, friendships, respect and love for one another. What a precious memory of ancestors who had this courage.
Are they still there in the area?
Thanks for sharing
Born and raised in Alberta (Cold Lake) (Calgary) and I have never heard of Amber Valley - thank you for sharing and this is definitely a story that needs to be told
why the hell was this not taught in school ?
FYI this year during Black History Month, my son’s teacher was speaking about Amber Valley in Social Studies class and the contributions that the people from that community have made to Alberta. My son was the only child in the class who knew about Amber Valley as my family is from the area and my dad and uncles have shared stories of their experiences with the people from there. It was such a remote area with very difficult living conditions that my uncle was 14yrs old when he had seen a black man for the first time and he was born and raised in the area. My dad always says that it is not the end of the world up there but it is pretty darn close. I am glad the history is being told now. Canada Post even made a commemorative stamp of Amber Valley in Feb 2021.
Wow, I had no idea.
My father was a 1st baseman with the Weasel Creek baseball team. He always talked about how good the Amber Valley team was. Amazing baseball players. There is absolutely NOTHING available out there about the Mysterious Alberta Amber Valley . Thank you finally!
Thanks for this…my family were part of that migration and settlement. My Great Grandfather Jason Calvin Jones settled there. Through marriage we were related to other founding families.
I remember in school when they'd teach us history in Toronto...always knew it was incomplete because it had nothing to do with me a Black Canadian or any other miniority for that matter. Again we all have been robbed of our rich Canadian history due to fear and ignorance.
Why would they teach about Amber Valley in Toronto? It's a small community in North Central Alberta that had very little to no influence on Canada or Western Canada. Local history is not even taught in the Alberta school system so it's very unlikely that you would learn about Amber Valley in Eastern Canada
@@greatwhitenorth5280 Would have been nice to at least know about the Underground Railroad....we had nothing related us. Absolutely nothing. Even now we know more about American Black experience than our own.
@@Michelle.56 it's weird that as a kid in Alberta, I learned about the underground railroad and John Ware but nothing about Amber Valley.
@@Michelle.56 The Underground Railroad is taught in school. Atleast in my province
@@greatwhitenorth5280 Depends on your age....and yes depends on your province.
Thank you for sharing, if you ever want to do a follow up story,,,my father James Kenneth Hinton Sr. was raised in Amber Valley with his Aunt and Uncle Rebecca and Thomas Mapp. I got goosebumps watching this video as the names and images were shown. There is definitely a mini series worth of historic tales. As a descendant of this Athabasca community of Amber Valley I am proud to share the Tales of my Grandfather Richard who came from the south with his sisters and helped weave the fabric of Canada's Black history. The parts about the baseball awesome and the Rail companies is how my Grandfather built his business's in Vancouver. Heck Jimi Hendrix and his brother Leon used to visit family in Amber Valley too.
Have all of the communities dispersed, or do you know of any that have endured in Alberta? Thanks for sharing, by the way.
james jr You should write your stories down or at least have someone record you telling them! I was born in 1964 and grew up on a farm outside of Olds. My father was the son of poor Germans who had immigrated from Russia to the United States in the early 1900's, then later on came to Canada where my grandparents homesteaded. My father can't read because he had to quit school when he was nine and didn't even know how to speak English when he started school. He worked in the fields for a farmer for 50 cents a day to help out his family. He's 93 years old now and still keeps cows and horses. I keep meaning to record him while I ask him questions to record events that no one will know about once he's passed
I am here three years late, but hoping that all your stories will be told. They are great and worthy stories that many of us would like to hear.
Thanks for sharing this significant part of Black Canadian history!!!
Thanks very much for making and sharing this video.
Thank you for this story! My son's grandfather Marvel Murphy was from Amber Valley.
No mention of an all black hockey team ?
Thanks so much for making this documentary.
My daughter is a descendent of Joseph maze/ Boyd and Myrtel Wagner,,we know they were from Amber Valley,but know little about them,just that the struggle was real.We also have pictures that we wish we could identify her relatives,,
Such an amazing story! I remember growing up in Edmonton, AB and seeing a black and white photo on the outside of a red bricked Grand McEwan Building College (it wasn't a university at that time). The photo captured a black family riding an wagon. I thought to myself OH MY GOD, Black Canadians have been here long before my family?! (my parents immigrated to Canada in the late 1980s). You mean to tell me that there is someone that looks like me!? I cannot tell you how many times I that about that photo and searched for answers that same how never come to light. I cannot tell you how many times was I've been the only black child/ teenage/ or adult in the room. Be that at the doctors office, elementary school, jr high, and even high school. Today I'm able to tie those pieces together. This needs to be taught in the Alberta's school curriculum. We often remember Black Americans for Black History Month but never talk about Black Canadians that have contributed to Canadian history, innovation, legacy and development. Thank you for bring this story to light and capturing a much needed ray on what it means to look and be Canadian.
A lot of the earlier Black Canadians were Black Americans. Alberta was a community full of African Americans who left for better opportunities.
Beautiful thanks for making this documentary. 2020
This is an amazing piece of Alberta history! The title says it all: Secret Alberta! I'm almost 70 years old and had never heard of this astounding story of determination and survival.....with sweet and proud memories. This needs to be shared!
It was not a secret to people who lived in the surrounding areas of Athabasca like Boyle, Colinton, Grassland etc.
I show this to my kids every year! It's so nice to hear more about our Albertan History.
I have not heard that many including my family members of hayes, Taylor, edwards, love, crawfored relocated because many Chickasaw & Chickasaw freedman were turned down by dawles roll, then relocated to Amber Valley. My great grandfather, frank taylor hayes was the brother of franklin and father of William crawford hayes. My grandfather was David hayes walcott bn. June 10, 1894, after a name change and naming his son, my father Dekalb E. Walcott, bn April 12, 1931, slayden, ms.
This is one of the most even-handed documentaries I've ever seen. The descendants of the original Amber Valley settlers seem to recall both the good parts and the bad parts of the community's history vividly. I'm very glad to have seen this documentary.
I grew up near Athabasca and I recognize all these names in the video. I took the bus to school in Athabasca and students from Ferguson by Amber valley also came by bus to school in Athabasca. I remember driving through Amber Valley with my parents and the houses were painted beautiful colours. My family also occasionally attended a country church in Paxson just southwest of Amber Valley which was attended by families from Amber Valley and Ferguson. Families from the Black communities east of Athabasca also came to the church that I attended in Athabasca.
Beautiful story, I’m born and raised in Alberta and never knew this story ♥️🙏
me too, except i came here because of class. finally they are teaching more of the history that they didn't before.
Thank you Storyhive for sharing this as well as the one about Hogan’s Alley! Wow wow wow
Thank you for telling your story. I never knew about this place.
Awesome, being a native Albertan as well as my father raised in Edmonton and having worked in the Athabasca region I have never heard of Amber Valley. Thank you for providing this great insight.
My prayer today is that all people can live free from discrimination, oppression, hate and violence. I pray that all people will have true equality and fairness in the communities in which they live.
I’m now moved to amplify this history, so all of us here up In northern Alberta remember!
Great educational video. I hope the story of Amber Valley never gets lost thank you very much.
As an alberta this really makes me proud, grew up close to Amber Valley, i knew of it since a very young age. Respect everyone, we are all in this together.
I just stumbled upon this, what a great piece of history :)
Everyone should see this! Truly amazing what these brave men and women did.
Thanks to the team that made this, and thanks to StoryHive for helping fund projects like this. Canada has a rich history that needs to be shared and told.
Very cool documentary. I didnt know much about Amber Valley before watching this, glad to know! Keep up the great work preserving your history & culture in Alberta!
Well it's been a long time but till this day my father.HORACE HINTON is still with us at 97.AMEN. 💯. TELL YOUR FRIEND'S.RESPECT
A pleasure to watch. I have many fond memories of Amber Valley picnics and ball games.
Heard about this place on the radio. I had to look it up.
A beautiful, local story of the humanity immigrants brought and at times received here in Alberta.
Amazing information to know! Bring Back AMBER VALLEY!
Thank you for this video
A great and important story. Thank you
I greatly enjoyed this. It is a part of Alberta's history that should be taught in schools. -- I'm not sure if it is but it should be.
I have been aware of Amber Valley for a long time, actually drove by there last year but there was nothing of significance (signage, etc.) as far as I could tell regarding it's history.
there is a small stop on the highway with a historical sign going to see it to the east of amber valley road on the north side of the highway 55
Amazing Story of Black History that no one speaks about in school. So Black children know the history of Blacks.
are there any buildings left,or just the one?
Richard Cockerill Watch this.
th-cam.com/video/6gJQcahO-2Q/w-d-xo.html
Moorlife study study study then study urself ✌🏿🖐🏿🇲🇦 Free Palestine 🇯🇴
I live really close to Amber Valley. Really great to have these stories told and remembered, I know there are occasionally music events at the hall there, I'm hoping to make it to one soon
I made a video on an Amber Valley Music Jam summer weekend. Google search "Wally Wychopen Amber Valley"
Hey Carrie, hope you and yours are doing well. Have you managed to get out to an event yet? Hopefully so!
And I Will show my father in the morning
Thanks for this! I didn't know about Amber Valley, or its remarkable population. I am very glad to have found out.
I would like to ask permission to add this documentary to my online worship video for Black History Month. May I borrow it and use it in this way?
Very interesting!
Cool history
Where is Amber Valley in relation to Plamondon?
About halfway between Athabasca & Boyle on Highway 55. Watch for the Amber Valley Hall sign, North side of the road.
how do i get there?anyone know?
24.5 km east of the Grand Union Hotel in the town of Athabasca on highway 55. The Union is on the corner of Highways 2 and 55. There is a museum at or near Amber Valley, some buildings and homesteads remain. The area changed quite a bit with the economic challenges of farming, and the opening of a large pulp mill nearby in the 90's. If you're ever at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, you can view an exhibit there that includes a "Toles School" replica. www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/phase2/mod7e.html
@@Ironfurnaceroom The construction of the Alpac mill completed the demise of this version of the community of Amber Valley. Changes to farming and agriculture, society in general through the 70's and 80's already saw people of all stripes leaving rural Alberta for better jobs and living conditions. Alpac facilitated a huge demographic change in the area in the early 90's, and now the last couple of years the area is becoming populated with settlers from another land. Newfoundland.
GoogleMaps is really helpful. I used it as soon as I saw this video, in order to get my bearings, but also to see how far it is so we can go for a drive and see the area.
AMEN
This is in my back yard. I live in Athabasca Alberta.
Wow! I didnt know there was a black community in the west.Good to know.thanks
Canada was also very racist back then eh... Sad reality those people had to experience.
We met the Black man who looked after it before he retired. He would come to the music jam weekend to show us around.
Back then ?!?!?!? It still is!
Who cares
@@greatwhitenorth5280 angry guy commenting on multiple replies lolll. lots care, maybe not you
that was really good, I want so much more of this. maybe some more stuff on Ukrainian community as well given what's going on there now.
Verga