CANWEST JUNE 8-13 2022

On our last night in Okotoks, we had our first campfire.

Earlier we’d bought some sausages from the British Banger Company in town and we cooked them on the fire. The Lincolnshire sausages were yummy! We really liked Okotoks and the Lion’s Campground.

June 8

Today we packed up camp in Okotoks and parted for Bar U Ranch, Canada’s only National Historic Site ranch, hoping to have a hay ride. Along the way we stopped and bought some world famous jerky in Longview. Elizabeth is not a fan. (I think Jerry makes better Jerky. Jerry agrees.)

On the drive, we spotted what has to have a story that we don’t know. There was a farm along the road where all the fence posts had ball caps, some in better shape than others. No kidding there was at least a mile of them. The picture doesn’t do justice.

At the Visitor Information Centre in Medicine Hat, staff raved about the Cowboy Trail and Marv’s Classic Soda Shop. Elizabeth was told that you could get an old fashioned malted milkshake at Marv’s. We’d been looking forward to that for days and planned our strategy for visiting the Bar U Ranch and having lunch at Marv’s. It involved phone calls and web searches for information. The ranch offered free wagon rides with an interpreter talking about the history of the site – I thought that would be a great way for me to get around and called to see if we needed to reserve spots. No problem – just show up, they start at 11 a.m. everyday. So our plan was to go to the ranch and then back track about 30 kms to have lunch at Marv’s – it was inconvenient but heck … we could get a malted milkshake.

When we arrived at the ranch, we discovered there would not be an 11:00 a.m. hayride as advertised because they were busy with a school group tour – darn rug rats! We were mostly disappointed that they didn’t communicate this to us when we had phoned earlier. The ranch is huge and visitors have to walk to and around the site. They did offer a golf cart ride to and from the historic area – that was nice.

We enjoyed the displays and especially the chuck wagon and “Cookie” (camp cook) who gave us tons of information and cowboy coffee (delicious.)

This ranch, at one time in the 1890s, leased over 150,000 acres and 10,000+ cattle and many cowboys required to keep it operating. Before farming was introduced, there were communal ranges and a massive yearly cattle drive. The chuckwagon in these pictures would provide food for one of 5 or 6 camps. The cowboys in each of the camps covered a certain section of the range and all was co-ordinated by a cattle drive captain so to speak.

The crocks in the bunkhouse/kitchen were from Medalta!

Here’s a cowgirl working on her roping skills:

Yahoooo!

Incredible view of the mountains and the ranch

The Bar U is very interesting and represents an important part of Canadian history. It has been an operating ranch for over 140 years and they still have a herd of 30 cattle on site, as well as hogs, cows, chickens, horses and ducks. The operation was so big it needed a small community to run the business.

After our time at the Bar U, we headed back along the cowboy trail to Black Diamond and Marv’s Classic Soda Shop. Marv’s was closed. They close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This information is not on the Internet. Sigh. We considered pizza but the place next to Marv’s had a sign saying back in 20 minutes and we saw the guy leave. We returned to the trailer and had Scotch Eggs for lunch – also from the British Banger Company and also delicious.

Frustrated that our plans did not work out we then drove to Fort MacLeod. Incidentally, we discovered we had to return to Okotoks to get the highway! We decided not to make a detour to Vulcan because with our luck, the spaceships would be gone for maintenance and the aliens on holiday or back in 30 minutes.

It was a nice drive to our camp.

June 9, 2022

We are camped just outside of Fort MacLeod beside the Oldman River on an amazingly nice, secluded/quiet site for a week. The fast flowing river is right in front of our site and there is a lovely breeze all the time. Sometimes it’s quite windy.

The town (birthplace of Joni Mitchell) is preserving the look of its early days in their historic downtown.

The Empress Theater was amazing inside and out complete with pressed tin ceilings and latest run movies (we saw Downton Abbey a New Era.) They also host live theater and have the same sound board mixer as Harcourt (Qu-24) and a lighting controller for the plays/special events.

June 10

Drove to Writing on Stone PP and had an interpretive tour of the petroglyphs and pictographs with a First Nations Blackfoot guide. What an amazing place, much like the Badlands with Hoodoos and formations.

Our guide/interpreter, a former Blackfoot leader.

NWMP outpost 1874 (recreated)

The North West Mounted Police would use the pictographs for target practice from the far side of the river. If you look closely, the round “Divots” are bullet holes. Today it is illegal to deface or to etch/deface the stones. (Not allowed to touch either.) It is still a sacred place for the First Nations people.

Below is the actual Pictograph of the “Battle Scene.” It is difficult to make out in the lighting but the above rendition / sketch is amazing to compare to the actual scene.

Similar to the Badlands, Hoodoos and amazing landscape everywhere. This is on the hike down to the “Battle Scene” pictograph.

June 11 - We took the day off to do nothing.

June 12

A short drive to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump National Historic Site – it’s only a few kilometers from our campground.

This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 1981, where bison were hunted for thousands of years – for certain 5,700 years ago and possibly as much as 10,000 years in the past. Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump is one of the oldest, largest (1,470 acres) and best preserved buffalo jump sites.

By disguising themselves as wolves and a calf in distress, Blackfoot Buffalo Runners would trick the herd into moving along a pathway that led to the cliff. They placed many stone cairns decorated with bushes to create the runway which was several kilometers long. The cairns where used year after year and can still be found in the “gathering basin.” Members of the bands hid by the cairns under buffalo robes while the runner disguised as a calf in distress led the bison along the path followed by the “wolves.” When close, everyone stood and shouted, waving robes and shooting arrows causing the bison to stampede off the cliff. Bison that survived the fall were quickly killed and then the harvest began. All parts of the bison were used for food, shelter, clothing, tools and other uses. Days were spent drying meat, scraping hides, making pemmican before packing up and moving to their winter camps.

Originally, the cliff was 20 meters high but the build up of bone beds over 6000 years and erosion has reduced the height of the jump to 10 meters. The first archeologists that excavated the site were astounded at the depth and layers of artifacts found at the base of the cliff. This fist dig was over 10 meters in depth.

The amazing building consists of five levels built into the cliff. At the top there is a short trail to the actual jump site. Each level has a different theme and extensive information about the Plains Blackfoot culture and lifestyle. In the theatre, they have a short film that recreates the huge communal hunt at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. Before contact with Europeans and the introduction of horses and guns, there would be a large hunt in the fall to ensure sufficient food and supplies for the winter. It took a lot of preparation and many people to carry out the massive hunt so several bands would come together to hunt the bison in this way.