Barb Teghtmeyer lives in the community of Bragg Creek, 30 minutes south west of Calgary. Looking out from the side of where her house is on the edge of the river, you can see where the highway used to be, that’s now washed out. Teghtmeyer grew up there and has lived there her whole life. Not only is the structure her home, but it’s an important historical place to the community. The Bragg Creek Trading Post was built in 1927 for fur trading. In 1932, another flood in the area took out the other two stores in the community, so it was the only one remaining. Teghtmeyer’s father took over the post in 1940, and it’s been in her family ever since.
“I still remember piles of furs and going to sell them,” says Teghtmeyer.
When Red Cross volunteers came to visit Teghtmeyer, she was sorting through boxes of memories and old books of recipes covered in mud just outside her home.
“The one I’d really like to keep is my mother’s, it’s in the green binder,” Teghtmeyer says to the volunteers.
The entire front of the trading post is destroyed, and likely all of the furniture inside.
“This you can’t replace, you’d walk in and it takes you back a hundred years,” says a community member walking by. “I can replace my house but not this.”
Teghtmeyer doesn’t know what she will do, for now she’s just trying to salvage what she can, with the help of people in the community.
“It’s so amazing how the community has helped each other,” says Teghtmeyer.
