The Peramid Ranch

THE PERAMID RANCH

While operations at the Alberta Ice Co. were winding down in the early 1950’s, the Pyramid Ranch directly north of the Ice Co. and directly across the C.P.R. main line was indirectly poised to play an important part in the formation of the Al Azhar Mounted Patrol.

The Pyramid Ranch consisted of approximately 778 acres and was primarily a cattle feedlot. It was owned by a consortium of 13 members consisting of several McKinnons, Copithornes, Gettys (including a former Premier of Alberta – Don Getty), Neil Harvey and Cec Barber. This above list was augmented by the Fultons, Art Baines, Merv Dutton, Ted Evans, Bas French, William Love, Judge Marshall M. Porter, Gaylen Jones, Ward Tennis, and last but not least our own Giles Wilderman.

Giles’ recollection of some of the events at the time included an observation that the C.P.R. knew before others that the Alberta Ice Company at their Keith Siding would be shutting down. They were by far the biggest customer and they were changing from “icing” their trains to mechanical refrigeration. At the same time Ed McKinnon, Ward Tennis and Gaylen Jones held a special relationship with the C.P.R. and because of this had advance notice of the closure of the Alberta Ice Company plant at Keith Siding. This, in turn, led to Angus, Ed, and Gaylen and others developing an interest in the Ice Company property as a possible site for the shrine Mounted Patrol.

The ranch continued operations for a number of years but eventually had to close down and move to the Western Feedlots in Strathmore due to environmental complaints from the Baker Sanatorium across the tracks from the ranch. Ian Chisholm was Manager and Steve Deutsch was Foreman of the ranch from start to finish.

The Pyramid Ranch’s officers are directors were: President - (Angus) J. A. McKinnon Vice-President - (Bas) B.V. French Secretary-Treasurer - (Ted) E.M. Evans Director - (William) W. Love Director - (Ward) W. Tennis

Compare this to the list below of those later to become officers and directors of the Westbow Foundation Ltd. (the forerunner of the Mounted Patrol).

President - (Ed) E.A. McKinnon 1st Vice-President - (Angus) J.A. McKinnon 2nd Vice-President - (Ward) W. Tennis Secretary-Treasurer - (Ted) E.M. Evans Director - (Gaylen) G. Jones Director - (Bas) B.V. French

As we will see later, this was no coincidence.

From time-to-time, branding took place on the Pyramid assisted by ranch members including Angus and Ed McKinnon and it was at these buildings that the seeds of an idea took form for the eventual founding of the Al Azhar Shrine Mounted Patrol.

THE MOUNTED PATROL

Among those who took part in the branding at the Pyramid Ranch were a number of Shriners, who were also ranchers and thereby horsemen. At the time these Shriners included most of the McKinnon family including – Angus, Ed, Charlie, Don, Art, Fred and Charlie’s two sons Jim and Neil, as well as a brother-in-law Chick Colwell. Ed was the first Mason in the family and in 1991 received his 50 year jewel. It is also interesting to note that Keith McKinnon, who was President of the Calgary Stampede from 1991 and 1992 was Don’s son.

At these branding events Angus invited Shriners who were not members of the Pyramid Ranch to participate. During a break in one of the brandings, a discussion started about the possibility of forming a Mounted Patrol Unit. This was just one of several discussions on this subject. After the branding Angus and Ed went up on the hill to let the cattle out and the discussion got around to the need for more land for the cattle, as well as s site for the Mounted Patrol. Ed mentioned to Angus that the property of the Alberta Ice Co. would be a good place to start looking. At the time Angus was living in Calgary and Ed in Airdrie, so Angus said he would look into it and the following morning Angus picked up Charlie, Gaylen Jones and Ted Evans and met with Harold Griffin of the Alberta Ice Co. The result of this meeting was the eventual purchase of the land and building of the Ice Co. for $20,000.00 by Angus McKinnon In Trust. The Ice Co. retained the option of putting up ice for the next three winters. This meant that the buildings could not be used in the winter if the Ice Co. exercised their option. $25,000.00 was borrowed from the Imperial Bank ($20,000.00 of which went to the purchase of the property) and the original note was signed by Angus and Charlie McKinnon and Gaylen Jones, who as Potentate of Al Azhar Temple in 1954 encouraged the formation of the Mounted Patrol and left open for future signators which eventually included the 31 signators on the Imperial Bank of Canada letter dated October 31st, 1955. It is interesting to note that not all of these 31 original signers became riding members.

In order to earn some money to start to repay the note, some of the ice houses were braced and reinforced for the storage of 200,000 bushels of grain for the National Grain Company. Chick Colwell, one of our first riders, negotiated a deal at half-cent per bushel per month storage charge. The money received from this storage eventually paid about half of the original $20,000.00 price for the property.

Briefly, this property included 151 acres along the north bank of the Bow River in Bowness (now part of Calgary). Included in this property is a 20 acre lake 5’ to 8’ deep, now called McKinnon Lake. Also included was a barn, a two-story residence which had been made into a combination cook house and bunk house, as well as a blacksmith shop, machinery shed, which was later turned into our tack shed. Six ice houses and an equipment shelter was also part of the deal but all of these have since been dismantled. Just before the purchase of the property, a new bunk house was built, which now serves as our Clubhouse.

Because the Al Azhar Temple was apparently not willing to participate directly in what appeared to be a risky venture, a separate corporate name was needed. The name Scimitar Foundation was chosen initially but Shrine laws prohibited the use of any Shrine related logos for property not owned by a Shrine Temple, a second choice was used. The 31 original signers of the note (see Imperial Bank of Canada dated October 31, 1955 attached) used the name “Westbow Foundation” for the land title and other legal documents.

Angus McKinnon was elected as the first President of the Mounted Patrol and served for 3 years – 1954, 1955 and 1956.

The first riders were:

Bill Jones Doug Fraser Doug Eckford Grant Bodmer Angus McKinnon Alex Benedict Roy Bond Art Baines Charles McKinnon Ed Borrows Bob Armstrong Allan King Jim McKinnon Robert Fulton Sandy Gilchrist Phil Fulton Neil McKinnon Chauncey Flint Wood Nelson Keith Brown Ed McKinnon Jim Conn

Early meetings of the Mounted Patrol were held at the home of Angus McKinnon west of the present Sarcee Trail and south of 17th Avenue S.W., in what is now the Signal Hill sub-division. For the first parade, all the horses were rented from Art Anderson of the Anderson stables in Springbank. Angus recalls their first parade. “The Al Azhar Temple was holding its 1954 Indian Summer Ceremonial (see photo attached) and the Mounted Patrol, who had been organizing since July, decided it was time to get in the parade and get going. We rented horses for that first parade and at dawn on a foggy September morning, we trailed 16 horses across town to Buffalo Stadium”. (Located in downtown Calgary). On the eve of the ceremonial parade in 1955 First Lieutenant Sandy Gilcrist passed away and his riderless horse was led in the parade with the flag at half mast.

For the first three years 1954, 1955 and 1956 Angus McKinnon was the President and Ted Evans was the Drill Master. In 1957 Harry Galloway was elected to be President but was not able to complete his year so Robert Fulton took over and was the president through the remainder of 1957 and in 1958.

By this time the patrol had uniforms of bright yellow and red shirts and green pants and looked very impressive when they paraded in Calgary, Lethbridge and other smaller Alberta towns. During a pre-practice at the Lethbridge parade, Willard Treacy was severely hurt when he was thrown from his horse and later died as a result of his injury.

The beginning of the Captains Parties was started by Robert Fulton during his year in one of the barns at the Stampede grounds after the patrol had performed in the Calgary Fall Horse Show.

The next three years were busy ones, practicing twice a week and performing in small towns such as Bassano, Claresholm, Rocky Mountain House and Didsbury as well as the Calgary Stampede parades. During this time the patrol acquired the help of Bob Gray, a former R.C.M.P. Staff Sergeant, as drill master and assisting him was Bob Simmonds a R.C.M.P. member. Together they made up routines, patterned after the R.C.M.P musical ride.

There are very few clippings or pictures of any of the early years, but everyone remembers the good times their entire families had at the patrol grounds. President Cec Barber (1959), President Reg West (1960) and President Carson Rockley (1961) all worked hard to make the unit the success it is today. There were great discussions and arguments on saddles, whether or not to have Western saddles or English saddles. The farmer- cowboy members won out for the Western saddles but when it came to white jackets the cowboys just had to learn to live with the dry cleaning. Angus adds, “In 1959 a retired R.C.M.P. Sergeant took over the drilling and really whipped it into shape. It never would have been the well disciplined group it is today without his help. Old cow punchers aren’t much for taking orders, but they either learned to obey or get out”.

The Mounted Patrol was not established as a viable unit of Al Azhar Temple. More importantly, it now had a permanent home of its own. From 1954 to 1960 it functioned as a Parade Unit only. In 1960 our present Musical Ride was started so that we could provide entertainment from our rides as well as parade appearances.

It seems appropriate to conclude this section of the history of the Mounted Patrol with the following------

WEST BOW FOUNDATION – HISTORICAL REVIEW February 23, 1967 BY: J. Angus McKinnon

In this brief review of the history of West Bow Foundation, I hope to give you enough background so that the Mounted Patrol Members will know that the members of West Bow Foundation have always had the welfare of the Patrol foremost in their plans.

As most of you know, we started with nothing – we did not even have the blessing of a large number of the nobility of Al Azhar Temple – however, we were able to surmount all the difficulties by the loyal support of a substantial number of Nobles.

Now I’ll tell you how we acquired this property and how the present West Bow Foundation came about, also how closely it has been linked with the early days of the Patrol, and I am sure that this link has now become solidly and permanently welded.

During our hunting and discussions regarding various locations, this property was brought to our attention by an old Patrol member, the late Bill Jones. I knew a good deal about property as I had explored it a couple of years earlier in connection with the Bow River Ice Commission. We contacted the Alberta Ice Company and they indicated that we might lease the barn and some area around it and suggested $1,200.00 per year rental. If I remember correctly, Noble Gaylen Jones, the late Noble Sandy Gilchrist, Noble Evans, Noble French, Noble Charlie McKinnon and myself drove out to see the location. This resulted in a meeting with Mr. Ken Griffin. I made a suggestion that we should enquire about the possibility of purchasing the property, someone said, “with what”?. I said, “the same kind of nothing that we have to lease it with”.

At any rate, early in our discussion, Mr. Griffin suggested that perhaps the property might be for sale if we had any ideas about purchasing it. A little hesitation on our part due to our sub- financial condition resulted in Mr. Griffin indicating that the price might be $10,000.00. Well, we humbly asked him to find out and let us know. He called in a short time and asked us to come to his office again. He told us to forget about his $10,000.00 idea, but the Winnipeg office had instructed him to offer it to us for $20,000.00 with a suitable lease that they would negotiate with us.

We instructed him to forward an acceptance on our behalf, and I was delegated to contact the Imperial Bank where I thought we might arrange for a loan. I also found $2,000.00 and put it in Mr. Griffin’s hands to accompany our acceptance offer.

Now you will all recall some of those good old easy money days. The banker readily agreed to loan us money, so I upped the anti to provide us with an extra $5,000.00. His only stipulation was that my brother Charlie would be required to co-sign the note, along with my signature. We were the only two members of the committee doing business with the bank.

Without further concern, the Patrol took charge of the property and moved in. We had at this point considered that the property would belong to the Patrol. Temple rules prevented this. We then offered the property to the Temple and were turned down flatly when there were funds involved.

We proceeded to institute an organization that could legally and properly take the title to the land.

Now, by this time, the Alberta Ice had acted promptly by preparing a transfer document – all that was required was the remaining $18,000.00. The $2,000.00 was not part of the bank loan. Now the banker had recanted a bit and requested that a number of Nobles back this note. We made it known in Patrol circles that the note would be at the bank for any Noble who chose to sign it.

Due to the promptness of the Ice Company, it was necessary for us to immediately form some instrument to sign documents and take over the title. Under the advice of our legal Nobles, a trust agreement was drawn up naming myself as the Trustee to receive the title, etc., on behalf of those concerned. The signatures were taken from the note and were placed on this trust agreement. Now it was certainly more by accident that design that those thirty Nobles ultimately became the members of West Bow Foundation.

You all know that the Patrol was instituted in 1954. By the end of 1955 we had Scimitar Foundation completed. By the end of 1956 the building was full of wheat and returning us $950.00 per month. All during this time I was the President of the Mounted Patrol.

I do not have to tell some of you that there were some critical times in attempting to keep the peace between the two organizations, and being at the head of both of them was no easy job. Some members of the Patrol thought things were being done that they did not know about. That was sure funny, because we of the “Trust group”, and actually the same people, didn’t know ourselves. If any of you have ever had legal advisors offering and performing free services you will now what I mean!

By this time our banker had become a bit nervous (remember we are still in 1955) and urged us to assess each member of the Trust $200.00 to provide a $6,000.00 reduction of the loan. Again the loyal Nobles and the free and easy complex prevailed. 29 of them came forward with their $200.00, - the one objector was readily replaced.

We finally managed to get action from our legal advisors which resulted in the formation of Scimitar Foundation. The thirty names on the Trust Agreement naturally became the members of Scimitar. Provisions were made to provide for resignations, retirements and deaths. The $200.00 assessed at the request of the bank automatically became the membership fees. It is also refundable if a Noble ceases for any reason to be a member. An unwritten custom has been, in case of the death of a Noble, to make the $200.00 immediately available to the family. We have lost some members by resignation and some by death.

We were continually being warned that our affairs were subject to Temple direction. We engaged an independent solicitor who reviewed our Constitution and By-laws, and by his advice every trace of Shrine reference was removed. That resulted in the change from Scimitar to West Bow Foundation.

At this time I want to pay a tribute to our good friend, Ken Griffin. It is very doubtful if without his interest in our ultimate goal, “Work for Crippled Children”, we would ever have acquired this property, and throughout our association with him, he has just been wonderful.

Most of our unfounded rumors and some of the stupid things that have been said and done are the direct result of Johnny Walker’s influence.

Regarding the pasture lease, it came to use from the Alberta Ice Company. It never was a concern of West Bow Foundation. It was transferred directly to the Mounted Patrol. At the request of the Lesser, or its representative, I agreed to act as the person directly responsible to the Department of Public Works. Therefore, the communications have always been directed to Al Azhar Mounted Patrol in care of myself. Here again, we owe a tribute to Mr. E. E. (Ted) Wilson, under whose direction the lease is handled. He is a member of the Masonic Order, otherwise things could have been different. The minister, Hon. Mr. Colbourne is of a different denomination, but he is an exceptionally good friend of mine.

The position West Bow is in now, is, briefly: The Glenbow lease nicely takes care of the takes. The Alberta Ice lease pays the bank interest and insurance and there is little hope of reducing the bank loan under present revenues.

Our liabilities are the bank loan of $7,300.00, plus the $6,000.00 actually owing to the members of West Bow.

I could write pages of detail, but I hope this will give you the information that should convince you that we have always worked for the benefit of the Al Azhar Mounted Patrol.

J. Angus McKinnon