“The purchase of the Bar U Ranch headquarters site by Parks Canada in 1991 was the culmination of a search and evaluation process which stretched back over more than twenty years. In 1968 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada came to the conclusion that |the ranching industry is of national historic significance.” They suggested that a historic ranch be acquired at which the industry could be commemorated. During the 1970s a survey of seventeen ranches was completed and criteria for evaluating their comparative attributes were developed. This flurry of activity led to an attempt to buy the Bar U in 1977 which was unsuccessful.
That part of the paragraph; “During the 1970s a survey of seventeen ranches was completed and criteria for evaluating their comparative attributes were developed. This flurry of activity led to an attempt to buy the Bar U in 1977 which was unsuccessful.” is the part where I was, so personally involved. As Head of National Historic Sites for Western Canada, that effort fell entirely into my hands.
At that time, there was a serious step to remove Historic Sites into a Culture Branch, separated from the dominant Natural Park side. With that dominance felt welcome at the Ottawa level, it was even more in the Western Region. I worked practically alone on Historic Sites among secretarial, clerical, engineering and other administrative staff who were mainly concerned with the large number of natural National Parks in the Western Region. I can say that I was quite delighted the day I got the call one day from headquarters in Ottawa, could I find a ranch that could be accepted by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board to commemorate the ranching industry. So, I advised the Director (my boss) that I would be absent from the office, maybe for some extended days periodically, to carry out the search for a suitable historic ranch.
I was not totally a stranger to ranching life or its history. After all, I had grown up on a farm where we rode horses and learned to care for cattle. Although my mother objected to “that trash”, I had read, in the barn or mens’ bunk-house, many of the pulp paper western magazines, telling tails of gun-slingers, cowboys and ranchers, left around by hired men, sparked an admiration of cowboys and ranching, Like many a farm boy, I trilled to the elite in ranching. More to the point in this new task I had a good foundation to start this new task.
Superintendent of the North West Mounted Police, James Walker, was the first Commanding Officer to occupy the Commanding Officers House at Fort Battleford National Historic Park and his history was very well known to me, having been there, in charge, for eleven years. James Walker had left the NWMP to be the first manager of the Cochrane Ranch west of Calgary. Therefore, even before coming to Calgary, I knew about the Cochrane Ranch. One of my family’s first outings, after arrival to live in Calgary, was a trip out to Cochrane for the local traditional ice cream treat. Following that we went to the Cochrane Ranch headquarter site to see the original log house into which James Walker had lived as manager there. It was early spring and the new born calves were romping around in the warmth of the sun – a most pleasant scene. I talked to the owner, who lived on the hill nearby, who boasted about his advantage in location for earlier calving time with the warmth of the south facing slope. I loved that site!
As days went by, I became quite determined that life in the big city was not all that was desirable and we needed a country place to go, for a break. So why not go big and have the Cochrane Ranch home site and operate it as a privately owned historic site in its ideal location for visitor potential. At the time, the province had an incentive program whereby there was $100,000 grant available toward new business adventures. The owner agreed he would be willing to sell the area of the historic buildings as well as the more modern house in which he was living. The branch of the provincial government handling the grant was interested and wanted a proposal. What I needed was a better understanding of the history of Senator Cochrane and his ranch, so privately, I studied what was behind the development of the large- scale ranching in southern Alberta and found out the great extent in it played by Cochrane. I prepared quite an extensive proposal. Then it occurred to me that this idea might be considered a conflict-of-interest and so asked my Ottawa headquarters if there was any interest in the Cochrane Ranch for commemorative purposes. Th is was in 1965, before the federal interest blossomed. The answer was yes, but only to the extent of a commemorative plaque. As far as I know, the ranching industry of western Canada had never been considered, by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board up to that question, presented by me to Ottawa.
While all of that had been happening, the provincial engineers had been developing an elaborate plan for a highway major inter-change that would include the historic area and demolition of all of the historic buildings of the Cochrane Ranch headquarters site. I contacted Hugh Dempsey at the Glenbow Archives, a long-time supporter of Alberta history and together we stirred up enough opposition that the highway plan was modified to save the site and buildings. It also resulted in total non-response for provincial grant support on my Cochrane Ranch proposal. What I had gotten from my effort was a very good understanding of how the legislation was formed, that would control the development of the largescale ranching industry of western Canada, as quite distinctive from what had happened on the American plains.
Thus it was, I was quite well prepared to start my effort to undertake the new task of finding the suitable ranch for National commemorative purposes, But I needed a much better understanding of what ranches there were, where they were located, and their historical significance.
After some days of studying all of the books and documents that could come readily to hand in Calgary Library and Glenbow Archives, my first step in exploring possibilities was to contact Sheilagh Jameson at the Glenbow who had written “The Era of The Big Ranches” and discuss with her, my purpose. She, without any hesitation, said that the Bar U was the answer. I was sure that Sheilagh knew what she was talking about, but I was also sure our Government system would not accept the advice of one person, whom, I thought showed signs of being quite predigest, maybe with cause, about one ranch. I needed to see for myself what existed for our purposes.
My first field trip, for the new task, was a drive to see the Bar U Ranch. I stopped at the gate and got out of the car to have a better look down the winding track to the headquarters site. It was a beautiful scene with the number of buildings, lining a trail, on both sides, the meandering creek fringed with trees, with foothills of the mountains for background. But it was, very obviously a major, progressive, operating enterprise, not showing much evidence of the early age of the historic period. The National Historic Sites organization, in the past had been interested in early forts, battle sites, events and people of the past and such, for commemoration. I carried my own camera so took some pictures. (Remember, this was before the days of modern digital cameras and films and developing took money, so one tendered to limit the number taken.)
I was there quite a while when I saw a car coming up the hill toward me and I thought, “Oh here comes somebody to see what I was doing on private property and taking so long in doing it”. It turned out to be Allan Baker, the owner, himself and he was not at all unfriendly or inclined to turn me away. He apologized that he was unable to show me around, but was on his way to an appointment in Calgary, but go around and have a look where-ever you want. I asked, do I need to announce myself to anyone and he said, oh no just go ahead.
That characteristic of friendliness and cooperation was typical wherever I went during all of that field exploration, making it all a very pleasant, interesting exercised. As an example, one day I sat with John Cross for hours in the grass, warmth of the sun, among the old log buildings of the Flying E Ranch, which, by then, was one owned by John, listening to stories about his life growing up on his father’s A7 and expansion of his holdings up to the present; of him getting lost at night in a snowstorm on his own property of some 80,000 acres. It was one of those occasions when I thought, “To be able to do this and be paid to do it! how fortunate can a person be?” Going back to the office quickly removed that thought!
The Flying E was the best, for quality of remaining historical resources, of all of the ranches with its cluster of old log buildings in reasonably good condition, an excellent scenic environment, still in use as a choice calving location and retaining practically all of its original appearance; very attractive to me. There was one very important drawback, John Cross had no desire to see crowds of the public invading his land and stock on his property. He had enough of those people coming onto his land for outdoor trips in the county, picnicking, leaving their trash and cans for cattle to get stuck onto their feet. He would like to see a fence around Calgary and keep them all inside.
He was not much satisfied being told that a definite place for people to go with control of their activities by planning and facilities in a National Historic Site would help that much, although he was very interested in preservation of the site. His solution was – why not me come and work with him to restore and preserve this historic site; he had the money and I had experience and we could control the public, probably better than the Federal Government, It was an attractive offer if he really meant it, but my obligation was to get a ranch for a National Historic Site.
I had examined John Cross’s A7 which was one of the first and was established by his father A. E. Cross. It was very modern, retaining little, excepting the setting, of the historic past. On I went to look up the home sites of many of the early big ranches, many more than the seventeen mentioned by Simon Evans , making notes and taking pictures, even into Saskatchewan to the Turkey Track Ranch, now, partly within the Grasslands National Park.
It was necessary to see the Winder Ranch due to the important role played by William Winder in influencing the interest of his relatives and acquaintances of eastern Canada and the policy that allowed the development of the distinctive, big ranching industry in western Canada. William Winder was an original of the NWMP and his last years, as Commanding Officer, was spent at Fort McLeod. One of his duties while he was there was to overlook the pasturing and care of horses that provided mounts for the force. This gave him the opportunity to get a good view of the grassland where the horses grazed. He was very favorably impressed and determined to establish a ranch for himself. He returned to his native homeland in eastern Canada filled with his enthusiasm for the potential of ranching in the west. As Simon Evans has put it, Winder was part of the “elite bound together by ties of birth and marriage” including Senator Mathew Cochrane who actually, largely wrote the policy for ranching on the plains of western Canada.
There was not much at the Winder Ranch left for National Historic Site purposes, but, I think it was there, at least in the area, where I had one of those memorable personal experiences. The owners of the existing ranch were an elderly couple at the point when they wished to retire. There they had spent years building up a fine, producing ranch and had no child to leave it to. They had not been able to have any children of their own; had tried a couple of times to adopt a boy, which didn’t work out; had taken foster boys a couple of times and they were just a disappointment; they really didn’t need the money, just to sell it and didn’t like to see it go to just anybody, anyway; it was so sad!
Somewhere during the process of study and exploration it became apparent that there had to be some form of criteria to evaluate the merits of the number of ranches with potential. I picked a number of elements that factored in the preservation and presentation of historic resources and gave each a number between 0 and 100. The level of having historical significance was placed the highest, followed by remaining historical resources with which to work. Others were availability, access, potential for visitors and so on. coming much lower in the scale.
Finally, back at the office It was time to write up some kind of report to set before the Historic Sites and Monuments Board. I wrote out short historical sketches of each ranch of any that could be considered (by my judgement); had it typed up; included the pictures to show what remains now; was working toward getting a finished report; when an anxious call came from Ottawa. The Board was having a meeting in the near future and had placed ranching industry at the top of the list of what was on its agenda; could my report be sent. The answer was no, it is not finished. Well, the Board really needed it; there were some quite lengthy quotes, no footnotes to say where they came from, nor to give sources of information used, that information of sources was all on a card index (this was before the common use of computers); send what ever existed; was the urgent request; so went the conversation back and forth. The unfinished report was sent. It never did get finished the way I would have liked.
In a short time, I learned that the Board was so enthused with my report on Survey of Historic Ranches, it wanted to come as a complete group to see for itself. I was obliged to arrange a bus tour for the group. The Board consisted of a member from each province with, I think, two from Ontario and two from Quebec. These were mostly the elite of history of the country. The chairman at that time was Dr. Donald Creighton, who some called “The Foremost Historian of His Day”.
The tour started in the early morning from Calgary with me the guide, going westerly, past the Cochrane Ranch site to the modern dude Rafter 6 Ranch with its newly built log structures, for a coffee break, into the foothills, just to get a feel for what takes place for present-day experience for ranch visitors but mostly to take our travel route through the area of big ranches. It went southerly past the site of the Oxley at Sheep Creek on with a major stop at the Bar U. Then on passed several others with a lunch break at the Claresholm, wartime airport where the widow, (who at one time owned the Flying E Ranch) operated a restaurant in an abandoned hanger. Her place was on the list of the 10 best places to eat in Canada, at the time. That lunch could have been rightly called a banquet and was one of the best meals I ever had. All that was missing was a better appetite.
There was a very pleasant walk-about at the Flying E where Board members got off the bus to stretch their legs and enjoy the quiet with no intrusion of traffic or other people, not even a cow to disturb the peace of the old log buildings in their original setting. If they didn’t get an appreciation then for a feeling of the past, they didn’t belong on that Board. It was quite apparent that many of the members, especially the chairman, very most favorable impressed.
Then on south we went, to Fort McLeod area with my commentary all the way, pointing out locations of ranches that were mentioned in the report and some that were not. By that time everyone must have become quite exhausted, so there was a quiet, none stop trip back to Calgary.
After that tour the Board recommended that the Bar U headquarters site should be purchased for a National Historic Site. A couple of years had slipped by while all of this background was taking place and there was a change of ownership of the Bar U. It had been purchased by the Wambeke family. The father had developed a very productive farm with the help of his wife and three sons. It seemed like, now they had a very good arrangement with the parents retiring, one son the operation of the farm, raising feed for the ranch stock, one son to operate a feedlot to finish cattle for market and the third son, Lloyd, to produce the cattle on the Bar U Ranch, to supply the feedlot.
I started negotiations with Lloyd who was very proud to have become a rancher, the elite of the agricultural industry. He always dreamed of someday owning a ranch and to think his ranch was the best of the lot, the actual Bar U that he had, which was more than he had ever hoped for. But in that short time of ownership, Lloyd discovered that he had gotten himself a “heap of trouble”. He was in debt about four million dollars and all he had to back it up with was the ranch itself. His attitude had gotten to the point of, “Oh well, if I lose the ranch, I will still he able claim, I once was owner of the famous Bar U Ranch”.
I met with Lloyd several times. He was a very busy young fellow, so those meetings were often at odd times and during my off hours. Sometimes it was at the senior Wambeke’s home. At these off times my wife or other family members went along, so we got a bit of friendly relationship. This was a help with negotiations in that they learned that I was quite an ordinary, trust-worthy person that could be taken at presenting the true facts of the matter. One meeting was in the evening, hopefully at six, at the ranch. Only his wife was there preparing their evening meal when I arrived. I waited for Lloyd. He finally arrived at seven, very tired and not in too good a mood. He had been out all the day fencing, with no break at noon. His wife sat plates, with the biggest steaks I ever saw, on the table before those two hungry men. That steak stretched over the plates on both sides. The meal seemed to improve Lloyd’s mood a lot while I waited with friendly talk, for him to finish his meal in peace.
My Government offer to him was the purchase of the home site, talking of BIG BUCKS, which would take the cost of maintenance of buildings and site off his hands, giving him a substantial sum for some relief from his debt load; and he could continue with his ranch operation and living almost as he was or wished to do; but there would be much more public visitation than the trickle he had at present, that would be controlled by government staff, so there would be as little as possible interference with the ranch operation and his family’s life. It all sounded pretty attractive to Lloyd and he agreed. We finally had a verbal deal in principal; next step was to get it on paper and get others involved who had the responsibility to do the required land survey and legal proceedings. That had to go through the Director. I left Lloyd and the Bar U highly delighted.
Back at the office in Calgary, I talked it over with Headquarter people in Ottawa, who also were delighted. They assured me that the money was there to cover the cost of the purchase and to proceed as fast as possible while all was in order. It was time to present the good news to the Director (my boss and controller of the next step). I went to him expecting he might be as pleased, at least, as all of us others were, of this final accomplishment. After my lengthy explanation of the final success, he replied, “We are not going to do it”. He must have been aware of my shock and sudden deflation but there was no argument allowed, nor any explanation presented of why the deal could not proceed.
I was too ashamed for my Government and for myself to go back to the Wambekes to explain but after all, what could I say? To this day I have no idea of why it did not succeed at that time and was shelved for ten years. At least some consolation can be taken from the fact that, my effort did set the groundwork quite well, back at that time, for the final establishment and manner of operation as envisioned, for the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site.
I did continue with my personal search for country living and acquired a half section of land on the Red Deer River north east of Calgary where family and others, can roam the Badland hills. We call it “the ranch”, although never having more than seven horses, a dog and cats, for animals to credit the name.