Bow Island gains historic Edlund house

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith
Commentator/Courier

A piece of 40 Mile history made its way into the town of Bow Island last week, as one of the few remaining Eaton’s catalogue houses in the area found a new home.

The home, known by locals as the Edlund house, was built in 1917, and found its way to the Burdett area not long after, said Corey Nelson, the current owner of the home. He explained that he had purchased the home for his daughter, a Bow Island resident.

“She always wanted a Victorian house. She likes the style of them. She likes the veranda,” said Nelson. “They don’t really have any of them around here because they made them so long ago. There are houses that are that old. But not in this two story style.”

Nelson added that he was relieved to be able to save the historic home, as it was possible it would need to be torn down following the construction of a newer building on the property. Thankfully, it was able to be sold and moved to its new location in town, though Nelson notes that the trip was a difficult six miles.

“We didn’t get any rain all year. Now, all of a sudden it rained, and the field was a swamp so that the truck got stuck pulling it out of the yard,” said Nelson, noting that it ultimately took several tractors and the truck to pull the house to the road. “Then once it was on the road, you couldn’t – we can’t go down the highway because it’s so tall. You couldn’t cross under the big AltaLink powerline. We actually had to go out around Western Tractor and drive through the middle of a field so that we could get close to one of the poles so that we could go under, without having to lift the lines.”

Several generations have grown up in this home, including Bow Island’s own Laura Lee Van Tol, who is thrilled to see that her childhood house will be host to another family and another generation of children, who will love it as much as she did.

She fondly remembers being the last person to be picked up for school by the bus, but the first off on the way home, which often lead to many surprise visits from her schoolmates.

The house was settled onto its new foundation in Bow Island on the 19th, and the town looks forward to having this piece of local history find a new home with them.