C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

242 NotestoPage 17before freeze-up each year. Edmonton's ambitions mountedwhen it became the provincial capital in Ig06, a year after theProvince of Alberta was created; in Ig08, it gained approval asthe site of the provincial university. However, the choice of thesouthern prairies, rather than the Yellowhead Pass, for thetranscontinental route of the Canadian Pacinc Railway (CPR)had given Calgary, Edmonton's provincial rival to the south,an economic advantage and consequently greater growth inpopulation from 1883 onward. In 18g1, Strathcona, on thesouth bank of the North Saskatchewan, obtained rail servicefrom the Calgary and Edmonton Railway, but only in Ig05,when the Canadian Northern Railway completed a bridgeacross the North Saskatchewan River downriver fromEdmonton, did the north side of the city receive train service.Thus, Vyvyan and Dorrien Smith arrived on a route little morethan two decades old. (See MacGregor, Edmonton, and Stelter.)Edmonton, now a suburb of London, England, was thebirth place of John Peter Pruden, an early HBC clerk. Thename itself derives "from the Anglo-Saxon Christian nameEadhelm and Tun or ton, which means 'neld' or 'enclosure'"(Harrison 81).a large expensive hotelAccording to Vyvyan's field note for 27 May, the women stayedat the Macdonald Hotel. Restored and re-opened in Iggl afterbeing shut since Ig83, this hotel now operates in as elegant astyle as here concerned Vyvyan. Opened in Ig15 as a GrandTrunk Pacinc hotel, it was designed in what became known asthe Canadian national chateau style (sixteenth-century FrenchRenaissance) by architects Ross and MacFarlane of Montreal.creators of the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa (lgI2) and the FortGarry in Winnipeg (lgI3; White and Baxter 14). HotelMacdonald, as it is now known. perches atop the north bank ofthe North Saskatchewan River valley, at the corner of JasperAvenue and 100 Street. and perpetuates the name of Sir JohnA. Macdonald (1815-91), Canada's first prime minister (1867-73. 1878-91). At least one of Dorrien Smith's watercolours wasmade of the river valley as viewed from the women' s hotel room(see above. Ig0). As to its being "a large expensive hotel."Vyvyan's accounts. which occur in the field notes following thelast dated entry (227). show that the ladies' bill came to £5 5s,or about $25.00. (Vyvyan's calculations throughout show aconversion rate of about $4.70-$4.80 per pound sterling.)A reporter, a woman, asking questions about our trip.Neither "Miss Moon" nor the newspaper that employed herhave been identified; moreover, no neld note mentions her.However. it is clear that the women's arctic journey attractedattention from newspapers in Winnipeg ("TwoEnglishwomen," "Social and Personal," "Return,""Englishwomen Brave"), Edmonton ("Women," "TwoWomen"), and London, England ("Englishwomen"), bothbefore and after their trip and with varying degrees of accuracy.The novelty of women who travelled, particularly to the North.created public interest. Miss Moon was spurned by DorrienSmith. not because the reporter showed interest in the journeyitself. but because her interest fastened on the fact that it wastwo women who were about to undertake the arduous trip.Perhaps the denial of an interview can help both to identifyMiss Moon as the editor of the "Women's Activities" page ofthe Edmonton Journal, and to explain the inaccuracy in the articlethat appeared on that page: it reported that the women "willtravel into the north alone on a nshing and hunting trip"("Women").All the newspaper coverage emphasized the adventure of thewomen'sjourney. "Two Women on ArcticJaunt to Use Canoe"was featured on the front page of the EdmontonJournal on the dayof their arrival in the city, and included three sub-headlines:"Clara C. Rogers and Gwendolyn Darien-Smith [sic] SeekAdventure," "Both Hail from South of England," and "BothWent through War as Nurses with the British Army." But themost sensational report appeared in England. Under the title"Englishwomen in the Arctic," The DaiJy Express carried anempurpled account featuring photos of the two women andsecondary headlines: "Nightmare Journey through Alaska,"and "Mosquito Plague." Embarked on a "perilous adventure,"the two are described as having survived terrible conditions:Vyvyan is quoted as saying that. "'Most of the days we walked inblazing sunshine. and at night we slept in a perishing Arcticcold' ." The women returned home scarred by "a memory ofmosquitoes that it will take months of cold weather to dim."The theme of the mosquitoes as the dark adversary is one of twothat persists in the article: "They found ... on most of thejourney wonderful masses of gorgeous coloured plants andflowers. but not once did they pause to admire [sicl. Always themosquitoes drove them on." As well. the women. whose guidesare not mentioned. are credited with killing a "grisly" bear:thus. the theme of pure adventure is established, then height-