Horse Stables
For generations trail riding has given visitors the time to get the most from the park’s surroundings which are always scenic and often spectacular with the added benefit of not expending too much of their own energy.1 Being able to rent a horse in the park was and is a decided visitor attraction.
Shortly after the end of the First World War, in 1921, the first horse rental operation was opened by L. John Bevan,2 a guide and outfitter with 20 years’ experience in the Rockies.3 He provided customers with everything necessary for their ride or outing. All rates were established by the government and printed or posted as necessary.4 Bevan also guided hunting parties outside the park boundaries at rates that he was free to set according to the services provided. Bevan was 39 years old when he started at Waterton having immigrated from Wales 20 years before.5 He applied for a lease in 1921 in the lower park compound area where he built a five-room log house, stable and storage building.6 Despite having been given good reviews in The Lethbridge Herald and advertising on a regular basis, he soon sold his business to the Morris Brothers in 1924.7
The Morris Brothers, Scott,8 Eugene, Edward and Cliff, operated their business from the same base as had Bevan where they had a cabin, stable and corral.9 Their timing was excellent as the post-war park improvements began coming to fruition. Among the improvements were a public golf Horseback riding in the mountains is a time honored course, one of the first in the region, tradition. (Photo: Parks Canada) and a new privately owned hotel and chalet for public accommodation on Main Street (now Waterton Avenue).10 By 1927, when the Great Northern Railway’s Prince of Wales Hotel opened, the Morris Brothers were ready for the increased tourism the hotel would create.11 They had 200 horses, 12 employees and had built a large two-story log building next to their other buildings.12 Meanwhile Henri Riviere, who had just left the service as a provincial game warden,13 had been eyeing the Red Rock Canyon area for trail rides. He requested permission in 1928 to take tourists on one-day trail rides from the end of the Red Rock road to Twin Lakes and return via South Kootenay Pass, a trip of about 26.5 kilometres. He was given permission to do so provided he did not construct any buildings or permanent corrals.14
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By 1931 the Prosser Saddle Horse Company, started by Guy (Ski) Prosser of Milk River and Jean Rankin of Twin Butte, bought Henri Riviere’s horses. To appeal to families, all three operations introduced Shetland Ponies to their strings. There were other innovations as well: in 1936 the three saddle horse companies began offering moonlight rides once a week.15 In 1938, Ed Schrempp of Twin Butte opened the V Saddle Horse Company bringing to four the number of saddle horse companies in the park. During the Second World War the Morris Brothers sold out to Martin (Slim) Wacher, of Owendale,16 who named his business Lakeside Saddle Horse Company while Rankin merged with Schrempp. There seemed to have been plenty of business for all. Riders wishing to rent a horse could do so at central hitching rack in the townsite located south of Windflower Avenue and east of Clematis Avenue on land that was then vacant. This hitching rack was near the Waterton school and if the timing were right, a few of the kids would take advantage of the empty saddles when the horses were being trailed back to their night pasture on the Pass Creek fan at the end of the The hitching rack, in the lower middle of the photo, was a visitor business and school day. Ed convenience offered by the horse concession operators. (Photo: Christiansen, who was born in Woslyng Collection, WLNP Archives) 1926 and attended school in Waterton, remembered this experience fondly recalling, “…we’d ride a horse out and then walk back home (to town).”17 In 1940 the Red Rock Canyon concession was granted to Ralph Vroom on the personal recommendation of Chief Park Warden Bo Holroyd who suggested Vroom might be helpful in watching for fires.18 The following season Vroom’s son and daughter operated the concession.19 The Vrooms kept their horses on the east side of Pass Creek near the Red Rock warden station and lived in a tent in sight of the campgrounds then located there.20 It is not known why the Vrooms left that site.21 Andy Russell and his brother John, area residents, took over Wacher’s Lakeside Saddle Horse Company in 1950 renaming it Skyline Saddle Horse Company. They had a barn close to the northern shore of Middle Waterton Lake. Andy Russell was a well-known area guide and outfitter near Twin Butte. He and his brother both had a solid knowledge of horses, the park trails as well as the flora and fauna of the mountains.22 While this was
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the last year for the townsite hitching rack, it marked the beginning of several innovations starting with installation of a hitching rack at the Prince of Wales Hotel under John’s supervision.23 In July regular trips were made to Bertha Lake with Jack Giddie, old timer and retired warden.24 The Russell operation proved successful and in June, 1951 they bought out Jean Rankin after she broke her leg and was unable to continue her business. The Russells operated the business until 1957, selling to an employee, David Simpson, who renamed the business Timberline Saddle Horses.25 The idea of locating an operation at Red Rock Canyon resurfaced in 1960, after nearly two decades.26 The government, convinced the availability of horses here would be desirable to visitors, made a call for tenders in March27 and Simpson and his partner Ed Burton were awarded the 10-year concession.28 But by 1965, Burton wanted out and his share in the business Joeen Gault has her harness adjusted by Dave was offered to Dee Olsen of Cardston but Simpson of Timberline Saddle Horses, 1961. the deal was not consummated.29 Park (Photo: Library and Archives Canada/National Film managers decided to take back the Board fonds/e010976130) location and extinguish the license.30 In 1968, Dee and Lorna Barrus of Spring Coulee, who had worked for Simpson at Red Rock, built Alpine Stables just south of the entrance road on the road to Camp Columbus. They had been the successful applicant under a call for proposals and began operating there in 1969.31 The Barrus family, now in its third generation in Waterton, continues to hold the license of occupation.
Alpine Stables is the longest operating and only horse concession now in the park. (Photo: Chris Morrison)
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1 Robert Scharff, Canada’s Mountain National Parks, (Vancouver, Evergreen Press Ltd., 1966), 91. 2 At the time, the park superintendent was George Ace Bevan but there is nothing to indicate they were related although both were Welsh and both left the park in 1924. 3 Newspaper ad from an unnamed newspaper, ca. 1921. WLNA Archives Box 130, Item 25. 4 “General Saddle Pony Tariff for Waterton Lakes National Park 1947,” Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Parks Service, RG-84, Vol. 205, File W-3-6. Also “Livery Tariff for Waterton Lakes Park,” 1930, WLNP Archives Box 130, 25. 5 Sixth Census of Canada 1921, District 7, Lethbridge, Sub district 10, page 1. WLNP Archives Box 130, Item 25. Available on line at http//www.ancestry.ca 6 Lease Agreement of Aug. 1, 1921 for lot 6, block 7. Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Parks Service, RG-84, vol. 2188, file W21-7-7. 7 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, May 12, 1924 page 5.WLNP Archives Box 130, Item 25. 8 Scott had worked as a chauffeur and chief mechanic for the park for three and a half years before he joined his brothers in the horse concession. “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, June 10, 1924, 5. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 9 Lease transfer documents, lot 6-7, block 7. Library and Archives Canada, RG-84, A-2-a, Vol. 2188, W21-7-6. 10 Chris Morrison, Waterton Chronicles: People and Their National Park, (Lethbridge: Goathaunt Publishing, 2008), 95-98; 40-41. 11 While visitation numbers rose and fell during the 1920s, by the first full season that the Prince of Wales Hotel was open (1928) visitation had grown to 26, 002 compared to that of 1925 when only 9,041 people came to the park. WLNP Visitation Statistics, available from the Visitor Experience Section of the park. 12 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, June 14, 1928. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 13 Rob Watt, Waterton Lakes National Park Warden Service History to 1970, unpublished, unedited, June 1, 1993. 14 Letter to Herbert Knight, Acting Superintendent, Waterton Lakes National Park from J. B. Harkin, Parks Commissioner, Ottawa, June 23, 1928. Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Parks Service, RG-84, Vol. 205, file 3-6. 15 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, Aug. 5, 1936, 12. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. This was an era of “moonlight” events. The cruise boat International held moonlight cruises beginning in the 1930s. 16 Letter to Controller, Ottawa, from H. A. DeVeber, acting superintendent, Waterton Lakes National Park, May 19, 1944, Library and Archives Canada, RG-84, Vol. 2188, file W 21-7-6. 17 Interview by Edwin Knox with Ed Christiansen December 29, 2015, WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 18 Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1969.0218, Box 11, Item 91. Memo to Controller, Ottawa, from C. K. LeCapelain, Superintendent, Waterton, Sept 16, 1940.
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19 “Red Rock Canyon Holds Interest for Park Visitors,” Lethbridge Herald, July 25, 1941, 10. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 20 At that time, the Red Rock Campground was located near the end of the road. A new facility, known as Crandell Campground, was not opened until 1964. 21 Memorandum to J. A. Hutchison, Ottawa, from H. A. DeVeber, superintendent, Waterton Lakes National Park, Feb. 2, 1953. Library and Archives Canada, RG-84, Vol. 2172, file W 16-112. 22 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, April 28, 1950, 11. WLNP Archives Box 130, Item 25. 23 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, June 22, 1950, 5. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 24 Rob Watt, Waterton Lakes National Park Warden Service. 25 “Wonderful Waterton,” Lethbridge Herald, May 11, 1957, 6. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 26 Memo to Deputy Minster, Ottawa, from J. R. B. Coleman, Director, Oct. 5, 1959. Library and Archives Canada, RG-84,-A-2-a, Vol. 2171, file W16-31. 27 “Public Notice,” Lethbridge Herald, March 2, 1960, 11. WLNP Archives, Box 22, Item 25. 28 “Waterton is Playground of Southern Alberta,” Lethbridge Herald, June 27, 1960, page 12. WLNP Archives, Box 130, Item 25. 29 Memorandum to W. McKim, Regional Director, Western Region, Calgary from John I. Nicol, Director, National and Historic Parks Branch, Ottawa, June 10, 1969. WLNP Archives, Box 139, Item 17. 30 Letter to David Donald Simpson, Waterton Park, from T. L. Ross, Park Superintendent, June 17, 1969. WLNP Archives Box 139, Item 17. 31 Chris Morrison, Waterton Chronicles: People and Their National Park, (Lethbridge: Goathaunt Publishing, 2008), 92-93.