Mirror Landing & Beyond

Historical Mirror Landing was located at the junction of the Lesser Slave and Athabasca Rivers.

Historically, people have used the rivers as highways for centuries. The junction of the Lesser Slave & Athabasca Rivers would have been a logical stopping point for First Nations far longer than written records.

Europeans first used it as a stopping point as early as 1799 when after exploration by David Thompson, the famous map maker, the Northwest Company built a trading post within a mile of the junction.

In 1906 Captain C. D. A. Barber constructed buildings on the site for the Northern Transportation Company, owned in part by James Kennedy Cornwall.

This small town thrived with about over 30 buildings, many of them businesses. In 1913 it received village status and the name was changed to Port Cornwall and new town site was surveyed on the opposite shore of the Lesser Slave River. This endevour was short lived. The ED & BC Railway built its railway bridge over the Athabasca River in the winter of 1913-14. It built its railway town on the south shore of the Athabasca River and called it Smith, after the Chief Engineer Rathbone Smith. Soon the trade moved to the new town or away altogether leaving Mirror Landing as a almost forgotten part of Alberta's history.

Join us as we explore the area surrounding Mirror Landing and Smith, and relate the stories of the people who were an important part of Alberta's and Canada's History.