Last week, the Centralta Tourism Society officially launched six historical books of the region that have been decades in the making. The organization’s co-ordinator Ernest Chauvet explained that the project actually began in 1997 when the town of Legal first started installing murals to depict its unique francophone history.
“About three years ago, we said, ‘Well … it’s all right to have the murals there but let’s do something more than a short explanation with more history tied in to the murals’,” he said, describing the content of Welcome to Mural Town, the first title. The second book covers the same territory for Legal’s bigger brother in murals.
“We did another book relating to the history of Morinville as represented in St. Jean Baptiste Park.”
That’s called Art in the Park, while Adventures of My Alberta, the third title, takes a more personal approach to history.
“The third book relates to the anecdotal stories of some of the pioneer families. We have the story there of the founder of Legal narrated by his son but written for a Grade 4 to 7 reading level. The kids can read it in school. We call it historical fiction but it’s not really fiction. It’s really the history gathered accurately but written in a style that’s more readable.”
The book Visual Heritage is a summary of all the paintings in Legal and Morinville in both languages. The society has plans to write other history books including one of the convent, plus the story of Legal’s Ă©cole Citadelle and Ă©cole Beausejour in Plamondon.
Chauvet noted that it’s very pleasing to accomplish these documents of local history.
“It’s a chance to meet these families. The word I want to use is gratitude for what people have done. It’s my appreciation to interview and to hear [their history] directly. It’s very satisfying.”
