Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre & City of Wetaskiwin Archives

Barreling through the holidays with this wooden artifact. This is a lid to a barrel that belonged to the Asp Bros & Co store here in Wetaskiwin. Stamped on the side is “Roasted Victoria Blend 96 15 Asp Bros & Co, Wetaskiwin, Alt twice.” Harding Asp and his brother John had a grocery store in 1915-16 called the Beehive and they would both start up other businesses in Wetaskiwin. John would own his own shoe store until at least 1930, and Harding was instrumental in starting Falun & Malmo, although he did not own them. The Waterglen store, which the brothers previously owned, was located south of Malmo & east of Ponoka. After running their business in Wetaskiwin for three-four years, the Asp Bros moved their store to Camrose. His son Ted, lived in Wetaskiwin until his passing. This barrel is viewable in our second-floor exhibits.