The Grierson Dump, 1940s, An Edmonton story, by William Kay

Landfills and the many regulations that govern their siting and construction is a thing of the future unknown or of no concern in the early days of the City of Edmonton. A less enlightened situation existed when I lived in the St Louis Café next to the new Dreamland Theatre up to 1945. The Dump, as we knew it, located on the North bank of the North Saskatchewan River east of the Low-Level Bridge was one of the locations that our city felt was an appropriate location. It seemed that since it was on the riverbank well below the level of the rest of the city it was OK. As if it was a situation of “Out of Sight Out of Mind”. Unfortunately, its existence was not exactly out of mind as pungent odours wafted up to our level as burning and smouldering garbage let off it fumes when the wind blew from the South. Many times there was a smoky haze in the river valley when the wind died to a dead calm, which occurred often on hot summer days. Rather than burying it as is done today it was often set on fire to reduce its volume. Eventually a different solution was arrived at with the construction of the incinerator on the south side of the river where the Muttart Conservatory is located today. The burnt garbage residue of metal cans was landfilled next to it. Today these materials are the base of the Edmonton Ski Club Bunny Hill notably called Tin Can Alley.


That dump was a major source of my early inkling of a different life in the world as some of the men who ate at our café scavenged in that dump, brought us partially charred National Geographic Magazines as well as parts of discarded Book of Knowledge. They were a wonderful and educational difference from the comic books that at the time were my literature of availability. These charred and discarded items became the basis for my curiosity and eventual love of reading and books. Even today as I go through the latest issue of my National Geographic it brings back those memories and I think I can still smell the acrid fumes from that smouldering Dump below the hill on the bank of the Saskatchewan River.