Photo by Bill Turnbull, supplied by the South Peace Regional Archives SPRA 0664.03.07.16

By Curtis Galbraith

Queen Elizabeth II

10,000 spectators and hundreds of volunteers when Queen Elizabeth II visited Grande Prairie in 1978: SPRA executive director

Sep 10, 2022 | 6:00 AM

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II might have some people remembering when she and Prince Philip visited Grande Prairie in August of 1978.

The Royal Couple was here for the sod turning of the QE II Hospital.

South Peace Regional Archives executive director Ellyn Vanderkerkhove says the visit was two-and-a-half hours long.

“There was definitely a lot of excitement, especially leading up to the visit.”

“The plans that they made, in the days leading up, you can see that businesses scrubbed their windows and even their sidewalks if they were along the motorcade route which went up Richmond Ave. (100 Avenue). Many businesses closed for the day to allow all of their staff to go see the royal visit.”

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She says it took more than 100 RCMP officers, 500 volunteers, and 48 firefighters, frontiersmen and military personnel to get everything ready. Vanderkerkhove adds one of the biggest jobs for the volunteers was making sure the crowd stayed behind the barriers placed along the motorcade route on 100 Avenue.

“Thirty Boy Scouts and 28 cadets from Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, and High Prairie got (a) very special volunteer job. They were actually the honour guard for the Queen’s arrival.”

“They met her at the airport tarmac and then they waited there until she left and escorted her back onto her plane when she left.”

She says the crowd was estimated at 10,000 people, but there were some people thinking beforehand that it could reach 25,000.

Vanderkerkhove adds someone, they don’t know who, made off with a very special souvenir from that day.

“At the hospital, the Queen turned the piece of sod to start the construction and when the crowd dispersed, the sod was gone. Someone had picked it up and taken it home with them as their souvenir for the day.”

Vanderkerkhove adds there were 5,000 copies of a commemorative pamphlet made for the day., something many people saved, and several copies are now in the archives.

The Queen also signed a city guest book when she was here.

Vanderkerkhove says this was not the first royal visit to Grande Prairie; King George VI (Queen Elizabeth’s father) came here by train in 1939 as part of the monarchy’s first in-person visit to Canada. The visit included a brief stop and a banquet, the menu for which included cream of mushroom soup.