Prairie flood pictured above is shared, courtesy of globalnews.ca
​The photos of Fred & Gerda Sorensen, and their home, come courtesy of Niel Sorensen.

An Untamed Spirit

The winter of 74 had seen record snowfall in the Camrose County area. Roof lines were shadowed by quickly mounting drifts; streets became white mazes.
The photos below show some of the lesser drifts present in the late winter, early spring of 1974. The property, seen on the right, a few years earlier, still stands, in the City of Camrose. Back in `74, it was the semi- retirement residence of Fred and Gerda Sorensen. Fred, being born in 1900, was turning 74 that year.
When these temporary walls began to melt, one can only imagine what the vast amounts of water must have been like. Sandbagging attempts were often futile, as run off spilled over banks, roadways, and rails, swallowing anything it its path. Travel within the county became treacherous. Run-off turned highways and back roads into rushing water ways, completely unfit for passing.

​This fact had an indelible impact on the Sorensen family, but I do believe, now is the perfect time to go back a number of decades. Our story begins on distant shores.

Danish Beginnings:

Well over a half century earlier, Fred Sorensen made his first journey from Denmark to Camrose County. Others in the extended Sorensen lineage had already begun constructing a new life in and around what is now known as Camrose County. Though they had found their way first to eastern Canada, the promise of land in the west, drew them westward, possibly via the same sort of advertisement found in the Meeting Creek Station (pictured below).
As was often the case for youth in those days, a very young Fred would be required to come to Canada from Denmark to help with the spring and harvest work. As Fred was a strapping young lad, he would be an asset to the farm operation. On one of those early adventures to Canada, Fred booked passage on the Titanic. Sorensen family members still retain his unused ticket and accompanying documents obtained at purchase. The Titanic sailed in April however, and that would make for a late arrival back in Canada. As a result, Fred took the S.S. Oscar II since its earlier departure would allow time for him to travel by train, back to the extended family's homestead in time to help with the farming. Fred, subsequently, returned to Denmark and would come back to Canada bringing along his new love, Gerda Kirchner from Vada, Denmark. They would homestead in the Bawlf-Likeness District and remained in Canada to face the demands of prairie life in Camrose County (The photo of the Titanic is courtesy of bbc.co.uk; the S.S. Oscar II, is pictured above, via www.norwayheritage.com.)
The Sorensens built a life around farming, and community involvement. Fred even worked the night desk at the Alice Hotel, once his farming days were over. (The photo of the Alice, still in business today, comes courtesy of www.tabascocat.ca)

Having successfully stared down many challenges, along the way, it should come as no surprise that the flood of 74, that almost immersed Camrose County, must have seemed like child's play for Fred Sorensen. Solitary ocean passages, followed by the challenges of beginning fresh on a new continent, had obviously endowed this man with a level of self reliance and determination, that would have remained a mystery to others. You will want to hear his grand son, Niel Sorensen share some of the family's experience with the flood of 74, by clicking on the box below.
The gallery below shows images of the remains of the original Gwynne Highway that had been washed out during the flood of '74.