Suburbs Satelliteslii & CALGARY’S NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES SEPTEMBER 2011 all in the family NANTON-AREANANTON AREA RANCHRANCH ISIS LIVINGLIVING UPUP TTOO ITS FAMOUS PAST BY PAVING A PATH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE SEE INSIDE ALSO INSIDE: Boom times for north-central Calgary • Trampoline star putting Airdrie on the map PLUS: Advantages of life in Chestermere • High River • Okotoks • Cochrane • Langdon • and more . SUBURBS + SATELLITES SEPTEMBER 2011 1 GRAND OPENING SINGLE FAMILY HOMES YANKEE VALLEY BOULEVARD 8th St. SW STARTING FROM THE $350’s QUEEN ELIZABETH HIGHWAY 2 Perched in Airdrie’s southwest side, Hillcrest offers easy access to downtown Calgary, CrossIron Mills shopping centre and a wide TO array of parks and pathways scattered throughout the area. CALGARY Visit www.hillcrestairdrie.com or contact our showhome builders. COUNTRY HILLS BLVD. NE Excel Homes Shane Homes Trico Homes Contact: Angela Kolewaski Contact: Jeff Brodowski Contact: Neil Donnelly Phone: 403.948.9359 Phone: 403.536.2316 Phone: 403.980.8510 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] www.excelhomes.ca www.shanehomes.com www.tricohomes.com 2 SUBURBS + SATELLITES SEPTEMBER 2011 Suburbs Satelliteslili & 2A CALGARY’S NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES SEPTEMBER 2011 DIDSBURY 582 CARSTAIRS all in the family NANTON-AREANANTON AREA RANCH IS LIVING UP TO ITS FAMOUS PAST BY PAVING A PATH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 2 SEE INSIDE ALSO INSIDE: "OOMTIMESFORNORTH CENTRAL#ALGARYs4RAMPOLINESTARPUTTING!IRDRIEONTHEMAP PLUS:!DVANTAGESOFLIFEIN#HESTERMEREs(IGH2IVERs/KOTOKSs#OCHRANEs,ANGDONsANDMORE SUBURBS + SATELLITES SEPTEMBER 2011 1 AIRDRIE SUBURBS + SATELLITES COCHRANE in this issue is a special advertising 1 1A CHESTERMERE STRATHMORE 04 A7 Ranche 18 Chestermere publication of the Calgary Herald 1 Special Projects Manager: 560 Cross family tradition lives on Community charts its own course, 22 LANGDON at historic Nanton-area ranch. separate from big-city neighbour. Barb Livingstone, 403-235-7339 22X [email protected] 22 Project Co-ordinator: 08 Airdrie 20 Okotoks OKOTOKS 7 Local trampoline athlete is putting Local women buy into town’s Jamie Zachary, 403-235-7552 2 [email protected] BLACK city on the global gymnastics map. active lifestyle DIAMOND Contributors: HIGH RIVER Wil Andruschak, Estelle Besserer, CAYLEY 14 North-central Calgary 22 High River Suzanne Beaubien, Alex Frazer-Harrison, NANTON City sector offering residents a Shelter is giving abandoned and Shawn Hoult, Carl Patzel, taste of the Prairies, close to home. neglected pets a second chance. Joel Schlesinger and Gerald Vander Pyl Cover photo: Estelle Besserer, STAVELY 16 Cochrane 24 Langdon www.stellarimagery.ca CLARESHOLM Cleanup efforts underway at Once-sleepy hamlet set to undergo former Domtar site in town’s core. its biggest transformation yet. ADVERTISING FEATURE New Airdrie community on the crest of something special his is one book you can judge by themselves with Airdrie’s many its cover. amenities, though, making even the T Hillcrest, located in southwest short drive to Calgary will be the Airdrie, greets residents with a striking farthest thing from their minds. entrance-way, and welcomes them to Whether residents are looking for a storybook lifestyle within. shopping or recreation, they will find “People feel proud driving in to everything they need just outside their this community and calling it home,” front doors, says Excel Homes area says Shane Homes area manager Jeff manager Angela Kolewaski. Brodowski. The state-of-the-art Genesis Place “Apex has done a fabulous job on recreation centre sits only minutes the entrance-way. It has a substantial northeast of the community, while architectural design, and it flows CrossIron Mills shopping centre lays throughout the community.” just to the south. Inside, residents are treated to an In between lie numerous green almost European style, as homes spaces, parks, pathways and a mix throughout the community feature of quaint shops and large franchise stone and brick accents that complement stores in and around the city. the neighbourhood’s quiet, friendly “It’s the small-town feel with the character. big-town amenities” says Kolewaski. Shane Homes makes up one-third of 1,700 to just under 3,000 square “The land prices are fantastic out here,” “It’s easy access to different points Hillcrest’s all-star builder group, along feet — there’s enough space to fit any says Donnelly. “We’re providing fantastic in Airdrie and in Calgary.” with Trico Homes and Excel Homes. Each lifestyle. value for people who are looking to For more information about Hillcrest, builder offers two different show homes Trico Homes area sales manager upsize.” visit www.hillcrestairdrie.com. to view. Neil Donnelly says one of Hillcrest’s Also playing to Hillcrest’s advantage is For more information about show Between the three builders, prospective largest assets is its value. Homes start its location just a 10-minute drive from homes, contact Excel Homes at 403-948- residents can choose from 45 different just below $360,000 for a house with Calgary. 9359, Shane Homes at 403-536-2316, home designs that range from just over a front attached garage. Once Hillcrest residents acquaint or Trico Homes at 403-980-8510. SUBURBS + SATELLITES SEPTEMBER 2011 3 to be continued... From the outside, A7 Ranche near Nanton looks like any other ranch. Yet take a closer look, and you’ll see its owners are making history Story by Joel Schlesinger Photos by Estelle Besserer f someone had suggested to Shelley Willson-Cross a few years ago that she would marry an Alberta rancher, she wouldn’t have likely believed it. But as is often the case, life turns out to be much stranger than any fiction we can imagine for ourselves. A little more than four years ago, Willson-Cross — an environmental writer and vegetarian — met her husband John Cross, a descendent of one of the most storied families in Alberta, at a meeting for Southern Alberta Land Trust Society. The society works to preserve the rangelands adjacent to the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies, from Jasper National Park in the north to Waterton National Park in the south. While it might be safe to assume their chance meeting turned out to be another example of how opposites attract, their beliefs shared a lot common ground — literally. “It was a love of the land that brought us together,” says Willson- Cross, 40, who now has, with Cross, two daughters Isabelle, two, and Helena, 15 months. 4 SUBURBS + SATELLITES SEPTEMBER 2011 Today, Willson-Cross is no longer a vegetarian, but those same values that compelled her to swear off meat — concerns about sustainability, the impact on the land and animal welfare — are still very much alive today in the way she and Cross, 48, live on the A7 Ranche near Nanton, a 40-minute drive south of Calgary. “I was actually a very happy vegetarian for 10 years,” she says. But life on the A7 Ranche is more environmentally friendly than she could ever have imagined. First, the cattle are grass fed. Cross moves them around the 5,200-plus hectares of largely untouched, grassy rangeland to emulate the feeding patterns of the bison, which roamed the prairie grassland more than a century ago. Macleod Trail in Calgary are named after the colonel, And not one chemical has been used on the land in who also had a hand in naming the city itself. Macleod more than 18 years. suggested the fort built near the banks of the Bow River In many ways, not much has changed on the ranch in its in 1875 be named after Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull 125-year history, says Willson-Cross. near his sister’s home in Scotland. “I’m not sure that we’re so old-fashioned, that we’re now As it turned out, A.E. Cross also had a fondness for his cutting-edge, or we’re so cutting-edge that we’re 100 years Scottish roots, naming the A7 Ranche mansion, built in behind, because we haven’t really changed,” she says. 1914, Braehead after family’s ancestral land in Scotland. “This area is ultra-conservative, and we haven’t changed “It was a great, big house with a pool and there were in how we do things.” always lots of people,” says Cross, one of five siblings, On any given day, Cross and his ranch hands, Travis about the nine-bedroom home that still stands today. Lundberg and Tyler Strader, are on horseback working Today, however, Braehead sits empty, largely due to a herd of as many as 2,000 cattle on rolling grassland its high maintenance costs. Living there simply wasn’t against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. affordable, nor was it environmentally sustainable, says It’s a snapshot of a lifestyle that isn’t all that much Willson-Cross. different from when Cross’s grandfather A.E. (Alfred In contrast, the family’s current home is a model of Ernest) Cross founded the ranch near Mosquito Creek in energy efficiency. From afar, the 2,500-square-foot, two- 1886. storey home with four bedrooms and two baths might not A veterinarian, A.E. Cross was born in Montreal and look all that different from other ranch homes in the area. moved to Alberta in 1884 to work on a ranch near But it’s what’s inside the walls that makes it unique. Cochrane. The home is built of straw bales, framed with wood Two years later, he started the A7 Ranche —the ‘A7’ and chicken wire, and both the inside and outside walls brand representing Cross and his six siblings. have a plastered finish, giving the home a New Mexico, “This year is the 125th anniversary of the ranch,” adobe-style appearance. says Willson-Cross.