Kolby Wanchuk Riding Blind
New Pro Sport! Breakaway Roping
Trailblazer Hughie Long Tragedy to Triumph
Leisure Guide
Away & Back Again! Serene & Stress-Free Adventures
PM# 40070720
JUNE/JULY 2021 • $5.95
Chuckwagon Thoroughbreds Behind the Backstretch Trinity Ranch Great Grass & Bred Heifers Outlaw Trail Stagecoach Bandit Pearl Hart
In This Issue
JUNE/JULY 2021 | VOLUME 25, NO. 1
48
AWAY & BACK AGAIN Our new Leisure Guide highlights many of the treasures we found in our home provinces
Features 18
22 On the Cover Two RCMP officers in Red Serge stop to water their mounts at the Bow River near Bow Falls in Banff National Park Photo courtesy Banff/Lake Louise Tourism
SUMMER LIVING!
Tips and recipes from the multi-award-winning Canadian BBQ Association FIRE IT UP!
Traeger Grills An enthusiastic review on Traeger’s new smoker grill
25
WHAT WORKS FOR US
Pasture Management The folks on Trinity Ranch on careful pasture management
28 TRAILBLAZERS Hughie Long
This cowboy went from tragedy to the Halls of Fame
30
@cowboycountrymag
ROPING
Celebrating the addition of women’s breakaway roping to the pro ranks
A QUARTER CENTURY OF COWBOY
It’s been a helluva ride since the first issue of Canadian Cowboy and we’re still going strong
20
40 PRCI: PRO BREAKAWAY
OUTLAW TRAIL
Pearl Hart, an Ontario woman who was the Most Wanted in Arizona
@CowboyCntryMag
45
BEHIND THE BACKSTRETCH
Great care goes into the support of some of the most revered horses on earth
Departments 4 My Point of View 9 In the Corral 14 Spirit of the West 15 Wheel to Wheel 16 Reflections 33 Cowboy Way 37 Pro Rodeo Canada Insider 43 Road to the CFR 44 Clownin’ Around 58 Cowboy Poetry @CanadianCowboyCountry
3
Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii
Canadian Cowboy Country 2021 Leisure Guide on page 48 Wekusko Falls Provincial Park
32
Kakwa Falls, Grande Prairie
Canadian Cowboy Country June/July 2021
PHOTOS: DESTINATION BC/GRANT HARDER; TOURISM SASKATCHEWAN/GREG HUSZAR PHOTOGRAPHY; TRAVEL MANITOBA; KRISTEN @BLINDARCADE
See Wild Rippling Waters
South Saskatchewan River
COWBOY WAY
Old Yeller By DYLAN BIGGS
I
PHOTO: NICKALBI/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
t was the summer of 1990 when Bud and Eunice Williams came to the ranch. I won’t forget the first evening visiting around the dinner table after finishing supper. Bud asked what problems we had working cattle. I hadn’t given it much thought in terms of specifics, my mind went blank, and I made the mistake of saying, “I don’t know.” He bolted up out of his chair, slammed his clenched fist down on the table and yelled, “What the hell am I here for then?” That gave me something to think about overnight, and by the morning, I had a number of specifics. As it turned out, we needed help with pretty much everything.
cowboycountrymagazine.com
33
LEISURE GUIDE
Away & Back Again
Whitton Lake
By TERRI MASON
Bison, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon
Riding Mountain National Park
World’s largest teepee, Medicine Hat
48
So in this time of upheaval and uncertainty, this is all we can do; make plans for the future and hope for the best. The far-flung trips might not be happening anytime soon, but we can finally explore our own province without apology. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a bunch of sites that work hard to give you and your family a safe and peaceful vacation. Life is fleeting; life is uncertain, so the best we can do is wash our hands, roll the dice — and get busy living. Canadian Cowboy Country June/July 2021
PHOTO COURTESY TRAVEL ALBERTA; TRAVEL MANITOBA
I was standing in line outside of the post office the other day, waiting to go in and check for mail. I overheard a friend telling his buddy that “if it weren’t for this lockdown, I’d have wintered in Mexico, then driven home via the West Coast, stopping in the Okanagan Valley along the way. I can’t do it this year,” he continued. “But I’m damn sure doing it next year.”
LEISURE GUIDE
Alberta Where Prairie Meets the Mountains When it comes to natural sites, Alberta has it all. On the far West are the foothills and the famed Rocky Mountains. To the North are the boreal forests and the last herd of truly wild bison; the East features the vast open sky over the undulating prairie and thousands of dinosaur remains; the South hosts a bit of it all. Alberta is called Wild Rose Country, named after the perennial rose bush whose delicate pink blooms grace the province each spring. It’s this hardiness that so aptly defines the province and her people. This place is also home to the most UNESCO sites known the world over and treasured spots known to only a few. Take a trip off of the main highways and seek the roads less travelled. Find your treasured spot high in the mountains or somewhere under the immense Western sky. Welcome to Alberta, where the prairie meets the mountains. Ram Falls, YaHa Tinda
Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park
Interesting! → Wood Buffalo National Park,
northern Alberta The world’s largest dark sky preserve; protected wild Wood Bison herd
→ The Hoodoos, Drumheller
Hoodoos naturally eroded land formations, stand 20 feet tall in the badlands
→ Red Rock Coulee, Orion
Huge spherical rocks in the middle of the prairie
→ C olumbia Icefield, Icefield Parkway A surviving remnant of the thick ice mass that once mantled most of Western Canada
→M edicine Lake, Jasper area Every fall, this alpine lake mysteriously drains
→W riting-on-Stone Provincial Park, Aden Blackfoot petroglyphs date back as far as 7,000 B.C.
→H ead-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Granum Historic First Nations bison drive kill site
→ L ast Chance Saloon, Wayne PHOTOS COURTESY TRAVEL ALBERTA
Cross a multitude of bridges to get to this ghost town saloon
→N ose Hill Siksikaitsitapi Medicine Wheel, Calgary First Nations medicine wheel
→ F rank Slide, Bellevue
The museum dedicated to the landslide that wiped out the town of Frank
→ A lberta Railway Museum, Edmonton Featuring a centuries-year-old steam engine
→ R eynolds-Alberta Museum, Wetaskiwin Automotive, farming machinery, and aviation museum
→ I niskim Umaapi (Majorville Medicine Wheel), Vulcan County A remote medicine wheel dating back 4,500 years
→ D onalda Lamp Museum, Donalda
The museum is home to thousands of classic coal and kerosene lanterns
→ R emington Carriage Museum, Cardston One of the largest collections of horse-drawn conveyances in the world
→N orthern Rockies Museum of Culture and Heritage, Hinton The history of the Northern Rockies
→ U krainian Cultural Heritage Village,
Lamont County Living museum, costumed interpreters, demonstrations
→M etis Crossing, Smoky Lake
Immersive experiences, cultural education, exhibits and art
→ E lk Island National Park,
Fort Saskatchewan Bison, elk, and other wild animals in this national park
For Leisure Guide websites, visit CowboyCountryMagazine.com
cowboycountrymagazine.com
49