Feb 10, 2014

Vintage Power Plant Postcard

I purchased this rare used postcard online, which shows the Medicine Hat power plant sometime between 1910-1920. The edges on the back of the postcard have been damaged from being glued into a scrapbook or album, making the postage date unreadable. Those details aside, this Medicine Hat postcard is still a fascinating document of a seldom photographed location. 

Medicine Hat's natural gas and our resulting city-owned gas utility and power generation plant have always been notable features of our community - a point proven by this very postcard. Our cheap energy was the driving force that brought a number of manufacturers to the region in the early 1900s. It was also essential to our burgeoning clay industry. 

The message on this postcard detailed a few of the short stops made in Southern Alberta and was mailed back to family members in Winnipeg. Today the twin bridges of the Trans Canada Highway across the South Saskatchewan River obstruct this view of the power plant - which has grown substantially as well.






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