Courtesy: Shelley Augustus

By Angela Kazmierczak

Difficult to determine if Saratoga Park was an old landfill

Apr 18, 2023 | 5:07 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Last month, one Saratoga Park user expressed concern over the amount of glass she’s been finding in the dog park, and that the glass is a hazard for dogs running over it.

One of the questions raised is where the glass is coming from, and if there was previously a landfill in the Saratoga area.

The Esplanade’s archivist Jenni Barrientos dug up some old articles and maps to find out what was previously in the area.

Barrientos says landfills, which were called nuisance grounds or nuisance yards, were less defined than today’s standards.

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat and area: Dec. 13-15

14h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

Dec 12, 2024

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

Dec 12, 2024

However, since Saratoga Park and Porter’s Hill used to be connected, determining which area the old landfill was in is difficult.

“Those two areas were very connected so people would just walk across the tracks and use those two areas together. Today, we think of them as two separate parts, so it’s really hard to find whether the landfill or the nuisance grounds was in one area or another,” said Barrientos.

During Medicine Hat’s Industrial Boom though, Barrientos says there were as many as five factories in the Saratoga area, and people likely threw their garbage along the Highway 41A area.

“Down in that area, in the early part of the Medicine Hat Industrial Boom, there were at least four or five different factories and square lines for the CP Rail that were in that area. So there was the Medicine Hat Pump and Brass, the precedent planing mill and there was even a mattress factory. It was a very well-used area that was probably full of garbage,” said Barrientos.

Once the City of Medicine Hat took over the Porter’s Hill area in 1922, a newspaper article stated that the city wished to clean up the grounds and make it an official landfill.

The Saratoga area eventually became a feedlot.