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Ran gelands4(3), June 1982 99

Alberta Range Cattle Industry 1881-1981 's Ranching Heritage

Alex Johnston and M. Joan MacKinnon

Men of Vision

In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police, now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, arrived in SouthernAlberta. They livestock for each ten acres. (As more becameknown about came to control rampant lawlessness among the Indians, carrying capacity, this regulation was changed to one head caused by a widespreadtrade in whiskey. The police quickly per 20 acres, later to one head per 30 acres, of lease.) The established order and provided a Canadianpresence on the significant point was that the total number of livestock on western plains. By 1880, the Indians had been placed on each ranchwas strictlylimited. The whole system depended reservations,political stability of a sort had been attained, upon land surveys, which were started immediately. markets for beef were available, and a sea of grass awaited One of the first to take advantage of the new regulations occupancy and utilization. was Senator M.H. Cochrane of Hillhurst Farm, Compton, By 1880, also, cattle drives in the previous 15 years had Quebec. occupied the westernplains from Texasto ,a region Senator Cochrane came West in 1881, bought a team and only recently vacatedby the Indian and the buffalo. The trail buckboard in Fort Benton, Montana,and headednorth to the herds were made up of Texas Longhorns,the bedrock of the bunchgrass range of the Bow River Country—today's North American range cattleindustry. But in Montana,while Fescue Grassland.He chose for his home ranch an areaat Longhorns were entering the state from the southeast,better the Big Hill, about 20 mileswest ofCalgary, where the mod- bred cattle—Durhams, Shorthorns, some Hereford ern town of Cochrane now stands. In short order, he leased crossbreds—wereentering the state from the west, via the 109,000 acres on the Bow River, stretching from to Mullen Road and Oregon Trail. It was these cattlethat were the mountains, purchasedabout 7,000 head of Montana cat- destined to stock the ranges of . tle, and secured the release from the North-West Mounted In Southern Alberta, policemen began to take their dis- Police of Major JamesWalker, whom he appointed manager charges and to enter the new cattle industry from 1877 on- of the new Cochrane Ranche Company. wards. Many police were related to, or knew, Eastern The Cochrane cattle arrived in the fall in a drive that has Canadian financiers. In 1879, for example, Inspector W.F. become famous for its harshnessand speed. Howell Harris Winder visited his home in Compton County, Quebec, and brought the herd to the border, where it was taken over by told Senator Matthew H. Cochrane,the county's, and possi- Frank Strong and 30 men from the 1G. Baker Company.The bly Canada's, most prominent stock-breeder, of the oppor- herd was pushed unmercifully, averaging 18 miles per day, tunitiesin the West. Winder also discussedthe formation ofa and was herdedso closely that animalshad little opportunity major cattle company with his father-in-law, Charles Stim- to graze. One hundred and eighty miles along the trail, the son. Both Cochrane and Stimson subsequently were cattle were herded across the Elbow River and counted where Palliser Hotel now involved in large-scale Southern Alberta cattle enterprises. Calgary's stands. The tally, dated The event that triggered the era of the big ranches—the November30, 1881, gives names ofthe Montana suppliers— Beef Bonanza—inSouthern Alberta was the passing of an J. Hickson, I.G. Baker, Harrison and Company, Mullholland Order-in-Council in 1881. It providedforthegrantto individ- and Baker, Poindexter and Orr—andthe number purchased. uals or tocorporations of leases notto exceed 100,000 acres The total was 6,799 head at a cost of $124,780.05, for an for 21 yearsat an annual rental of one cent per acre. Within 3 averageof $18.35 per head. According to the notebook in years,the lessee was to have placed on the lease one headof which the tally was recorded, losses during the winter of 1881-82 were about 1,000 head.About 50 purebredHereford, Authors are range ecologist, Gait Museum, Lethbridge,Alberta T1J 0P6, Aberdeen and Shorthorn bulls and facilities director, Historic SitesService, AlbertaCulture, 8820-112 Street, Angus, intended to improve ,Alberta T6G 2P8, respectively. the stock were sent west from Cochrane's home farm. 100 Ranqelands4(3), Juno 1982

Ernest Cochrane in frontof the Ranch Manager'sResidence, British-AmericanRancho 1887

Asecond drive in 1882 brought over4,000 additional cattle Other rancheswere formed during the early 1800s, mainly tothe Cochrane Ranche. Major Walker purchasedthe cattle, by British interests although the Belgian, Swiss, Scottish, mostly from the large ranching firm of Poindexterand Orr of Irish, Italian, and French monied classes were also repres- Dillon, Montana.A severe snowstorm hit just beforethe drive ented. The Oxley Ranche was a classic example of conflict reached Fish Creek, now within Calgary'ssouthern city lim- between an absenteeowner and a resident ranch manager; its. Poindexter, an experiencedcowman, wanted to leave the each wrote a book about his experiences. The Bar U was herd in the sheltered riverbottom until conditions improved. formed in 1882; its backerswere Sir Hugh and Andrew Allen However,Major Walkerinsisted that it bedelivered to theBig of the Montreal-based Allen Steamship Lines. The Bar U Hill as per agreement. Disillusioned by interference from the herd grew to 30,000 head; at one time 2,000 registered Per- East, Walker left the company soon after and was replaced cheron mares were run on Bar U range. by accountant Frank White, who had no previous ranching In summary,the era ofthe bigranches in SouthernAlberta experience. It was a winter of deep at Cochrane but was basedon American know-how and Eastern Canadianor orders from Eastern Canadawere to keepthe cattle on their Europeancapital. Absenteeownership took its toll because home range.Thus, although open rangewas availableonly a owners in Montreal, London, or elsewhere insisted upon few miles down the Bow River,riders spent the winterhazing making the kind of day-to-day decisions that should have starving cattle back to the west. Over 3,000 headof Cochrane been made by a foreman in the field. The doom of the big cattle died before spring. ranches was sealed in the late 1890's with the election of a Even this did not discourage the Senator. He secured Liberal governmentthat abolishedthe Closed Lease System, another 100,000-acre lease on the Waterton River nearmod- cancelled existing leases,and opened the ranching country ern Glenwood, movedthe cattle to the new lease, and began to run sheep on the lease west of Calgary.The sheepranch, ..-.. by this time reorganized as the British American Ranche .(. Company, was managed first by a Virginian, W.D. Kerfoot, ':: then by the Senator's youngest son Ernest. The Cochrane Ranche on the Waterton River ran into trouble in the winter of 1886-87. Heavy snow and cold trapped cattlein the hills. Frank Strong, for$1,000, rounded up several hundred Indian ponies from a nearby Reserve, drove them to the snow-blocked valleys where the cattle were trapped, and then let them go. The ponies headedfor their home range on the snow-free Peigan Flats with the cattle following along behind. In spite of these and other misfortunes, the southern Cochrane Ranche operated with success and profit until Senator Cochrane's death in 1903. The company then went out of business,the property at Waterton being sold to the Mormon Church for $3,128,000. The company had madethe most profitable land speculation in Alberta history to that time. Branding Calves, CochraneRanche 1882. Rangelands4(3), June 1982 101 to homesteading. No longer protected from homesteaders, 1900 and earlier to the selling of 14-to18-month-old cattle in and particularly from American dryland farmers who began the 1930's and later. A feeder industry developed with the to arrive about 1900, ranchers were forced to retrench. In marketing of younger cattle. Since the 1940's, important 1905, Minister of the Interior Frank Oliver began to cancel developments in Southern Alberta ranches have been the and otherwise disposeof the region'swater reservations,the subdivision of large fields into smallerones for better animal last vestige of the special status that traditionally had been control, the developmentof stock-watering facilities for bet- accorded the ranching industry. Faced with an enthusiasm ter animal distribution, and the seedingdown of a portion of for settlement that obviously was not going to abate, the big the ranch to suitable grass-legume mixtures for increased ranch operators began to sell. Thus, although the ranching feed supply. industry has continued to the present, it never regained the While one must rememberthat, today, aboutBO% ofSouth- special status it enjoyed during the period 1881-1905. ern Alberta cattle are produced on the farms of the region, Early methods were primitive by today's standards and these various developmentshave resulted in an increase in were based on methodsthat evolvedin Texasand elsewhere numbers from about 325,000 head in 1900, 1.0 million in in the western United States. At first, cattle roamed at large 1920, 2.6 million in 1960,3.3million in 1970, and 4.2 million in over vast areas. Therewere two roundups per year,one in the 1980. The period of greatest increasehas coincided with the spring to brand calves and one in the fall to gather steersfor 40-year period of serious forage crops researchand exten- market. (Our stock associationsbegan as organizations to sion by Agriculture Canadaand Alberta Agriculture during control the semiannual roundups.) No one paid any atten- which range management principles for the region were tion to calf crop and ranchers were interested only in the established; introduction, improvement, and forage crops number of 4- to 5-year-old grassfat steersthey couldgather breeding programswere accelerated; agronomic principles for shipment to Indian Reservations,Mounted Police posts, relating to forage crops were determined; fertilization of and, afterthe coming of the railroad, to Chicago. Therewas native range and cultivated forage crops was studied; nutri- no supplementalfeeding until severe Canadianwinters, not- tional differences among forage crops and seasons became ably those of 1886-87 and 1906-07, convinced ranchers that known;annual pasturesandcrop residuesweremorewidely they could not expect a cow to nurse a calf and still put utilized; and the grazing season was extended in various enough fat on her back in a short summerto carry her and a ways including the complementarygrazing of tame forages fetus through a long winter. Thus, ranchers began to put up and native range. hay and to reserve certain shelteredareasforwintergrazing. Paralleling thesedevelopments in forage production were This meant the use of fences,which started to becomegen- important discoveries in animal breeding, animal nutrition, eral with the organization of municipalities and the passing animal health,and animal insect control. The pool of germ- of Herd Lawsin about 1910-12. Fencing in therange country plasm available to Southern Alberta breeders was enor- coincided with control of the grazing animal, an assumption mously increased by the importation of exotic cattle from of responsibility on the part of the individual landowner,and Europe and elsewhere; crossbreeding techniques were the beginning of range managementas we know it today. developedto make maximumuse ofhybrid vigor. The elimi- There was little change in ranching methods in Southern nation of the warble fly now appears to be possible and a Alberta from about 1900 until afterthe Second World War. cheap,effective control of hornflies is available. Most of the Horse ranchers, never numerous, began to go out of busi- benefitsof thesediscoveries, at leastuntil very recently, have nessin 1925. Sheepmen, another group thatwere neververy been passed along to the consumer in the form of cheap important in the region, began to disappear in 1944. The meat. marketing of cattle changed from 4- to 5-year-old steers in Alberta is proud of its ranching heritage and has taken

Herd of cattle at the CochraneRanche 1882 102 Rangelands 4(3), June 1982 steps to commemorate it. One hundred and fifty acres of the rate artifacts found in archaeological excavationsat thesite home range of Cochrane Ranche, near Cochrane, Alberta, along with period photographs. A slide show relating the has been designated as a provincial historic site. Over the history of the Cochrane Ranche is also avaiiable to visitors. years this area had been used for a number of different An interpretive trail loops through the site. Sign posts purposes. Here the Collins Brickyard, which produced up to point out significant historical and physical features as well 80000 bricks per day, operated from 1901 to 1925. The as noting some of the types of plants and animal life still Cochrane RancheManager's Residence was usedas a cook- found at the Ranche that the early ranchers either used or house, but burned down in 1906. The Shelley Quarry had to contend with. Well over 100species of wildflowers are Company quarried sandstone nearby during the 1910's. found withinthe site and beaver, deer, hawks,and the occa- Later the land was used formixed farming before reverting to sional coyote still make their homes here, in addition, con- ranch land in 1949. When the realignment of a nearby high- sideration is being given to reintroducing an area of native way threatened to destroy the site where the Cochrane prairie. Ranche headquartershad stood, the Provincial Government Visitors from all overCanada and the United States, aswell of Alberta decided to purchasethe land in order to preserve as many European countries, have visited the ranch site. it. A bronze statue was commissioned to commemoratethe Over 10,000 visitors enjoyed its relatively unspoiled setting early ranching industry. The one and a half times life size duringthe summer of 1981alone. Itis hoped that bycompar- statue of a horse and riderby local sculptor Mac Mackenzie, ing early ranching techniques and history with today's titled Men of Vision, overlooks the spot where the ranch methods, visitors will leave Cochrane Ranche Historic Site Manager'sHouse and the Bunkhousestood and representsa with an insight into the history of the area and a better cowboy who has just found the ideal headquarters for a understanding of the requirements of the modern beef ranch. The 3,600lb statue was unveiledat the formal opening industry, still the most important factor in the economy of of Cochrane Ranche Historic Site on May 21, 1979. this part of Alberta. the A visitor centre, which openedIn August1980,explains Editor's Note: I was particularly interestedin the dates of thisarticle, 1881- history of the ranch. Using mainly quotations from second 1981. My father was born in 1881 and lived until 1971. To Americansliving south of theCanadian border the spelling of words is managerFrank White'srevealing diary, the displaysincorpo- intriguing. But thisadds spice and varietyto Rangelands what we thrive on.