A Paradise for the Poor – Hussar, Standard & Caroline, Alberta Letters of Ole Nissen, 1923 – 1937

Ed: Joan Walter, 2001 (SC 166 p)
ISBN 0-929123-11-5

Emigrating from Denmark to western Canada, Ole Nissen detrained at Hussar, Alberta, in 1923. He worked as a farm hand, rode the rails to Vancouver, cut and loaded rail ties west of Edmonton, and then returned to Hussar to embrace farming.

With the onslaught of the Great Depression, his fortunes waned and he and his wife Emmie were among thousands driven from the drought-stricken plains. In bush country at Caroline, Alberta, more trouble awaited them. Ole’s intimate diaries and letters from life at Hussar, Standard, Chancellor, Dorothy, and Caroline are writings of hope, elation, disappointment, departure and eventual rebirth and revitalization.