However, because Saratoga Park and Porter’s Hill utilized to be linked, figuring out which location the old garbage dump remained in is tough.
“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 however, Barrientos says there were as numerous as 5 factories in the Saratoga location, and individuals most likely tossed their trash along the Highway 41A location.
“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 control of the Porter’s Hill location in 1922, a news article mentioned that the city wanted to tidy up the premises and make it a main garbage dump.
The Saratoga location ultimately ended up being a feedlot.
