Along our Foothills
An interactive story map through the Eastern slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains
Join us for an interactive story map adventure into the wilds, the colourful origins, and characters along the Eastern Slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains - the land, in Stoney Nakoda language of Ga-hna - which translates to Along the Foothills.
TVOS Overview Web Application
Part I: First Nations and the Frontier
Who was here?
The history of First Nations people in Alberta goes back at least 11,000 years, long before exploring other continents was even an idea in Europe, or other lands. The Stoney Nakoda people along the foothills of the Eastern Slopes, are the northernmost members of the great Sioux Nation, the others being Lakota and Dakota.
Their language is a dialect of Siouan, and they’ve been referred to as the Rocky Mountain Sioux. They’re believed to have migrated northwest from what is now the northeastern United States. Like the Lakota and Dakota peoples of the Great Plains, they were buffalo hunters, but also hunted other big game along the foothills and into the Rocky Mountains; elk, Bighorn Sheep, mule and white-tailed deer.
The group along the Foothills in our area of interest live west of Longview on the Eden Valley Reservation which is shared by the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley Bands of the Nakoda Nation.
Who Passed Through and Who Stayed On?
Explorers, clerics and fur traders began to come. The Hudson Bay Company had already been harvesting and trading furs since the late 1600s, although mainly further north. Stoney Nakoda people guided explorers like Irishman, geographer and explorer, John Palliser (pictured right) who declared that this area along the Foothills was not suitable for farming. Compared to the lush fields of Waterford, Ireland where he came from, he might have thought that. But these plains along the foothills with their nutritious and hardy “bunch grass” or fescue would later prove ideal for grazing cattle. Methodist missionary Robert Rundle arrived in Alberta in 1840. He was followed by brothers, the Reverends George and John McDougall who stayed and began a long, and often contentious relationship with the Stoney Nakoda people in the 1870s. The McDougalls eventually built a church near Morley in 1875.
Part II: Cattle Barons, Cowboys, and Pioneers
In 1836 Texas became a Republic, and abandoned Mexican cattle herds in the area bred prolifically and increased in great numbers. This began the cowboy tradition in the American south and southwest, which put its own spin on the traditions of the Spanish and Mexican Caballeros. Value was seen in these wild herds that were free for the taking. The great trail drives began as speculators rounded them up and found markets for their meat. (Right: Cowboy John Ware's Homestead
The cowboy trade eventually spread north to Montana and into Alberta. The most influential hub of the early cattle business along the foothills was the Northwest Cattle Company or Bar U Ranch founded in 1881, and now a Parks Canada historic site. As massive herds were “trailed” up from Texas, experienced cowboys and cowboy wannabes arrived at the Bar U from eastern Canada, America, the United Kingdom and Europe. There was always work to be had: from herding, to branding, to breaking horses. Many “greenhorns” apprenticed to the old hands and earned their spurs. Among those who worked at the Bar U was the famous former slave, and legendary horseman John Ware, outlaw Harry Longabaugh - the Sundance Kid, and Western artist Charlie Russell, to name but a few. The Bar U attracted all kinds. (Right: Cowboys at the Bar U Ranch)
Many stayed on in this area, beginning their own ranches and homesteads. The succession of Bar U owners were the Cattle Barons of the day. Perhaps the most famous was Senator Pat Burns. His company Burns Meats still exists today. About this time pioneer settlers began to arrive; some cowboys, some conventional livestock breeders and farmers from England, Ireland, Scotland and America.
These new arrivals spread out along the foothills from Priddis south to Longview area and west. The small towns and villages in the area were mostly trading places, and crossroads containing post offices, general stores and “stopping houses,” an early sort of Bed and Breakfast for travellers. This was about to change drastically with the momentous discovery of oil and gas in Turner Valley. (Right: Malcolm Millar)
Mother and son, Longview area ranchers Agnes and Frank Bedingfeld
Part III: Wildcatters and the Oil Barons
"Alberta practically floats on an underground ocean of gas" Les Rowland, Senior Editor of Oilweek Magazine
Gas seeps and rainbow coloured slicks that floated on rivers, and swamp water were known for a thousand years by Alberta’s First Nations. You didn’t draw water, nor would your horse drink from there. It’s said that black pioneer rancher John Ware was one of the first to take a sample and send it off for an opinion. He delivered it to a Calgary doctor who dismissed it as worthless coal gas. (Right: Oil Dericks populate the landscape)
Then, along came William Stewart Herron a local rancher, who had spotted a gas seep along the Sheep River. He was a little more scientific of mind, and sent the samples to two places: a university in Pennsylvania and a university in California. The results were much more promising. It was gas condensate, evidence of oil underground that turns to condensate when it hits the surface. With investor/partners Archibald Dingman and R.B.Bennett, who would later become a Prime Minister of Canada, they struck oil on May 14th, 1914. (Right: Interested investors)
Not only did they strike oil but they struck a ginger-ale coloured light crude that didn’t even need refining. Dingman #1 was only the beginning. Oil exploration began from the foothills west of Millarville, south to Longview.
Towns sprang up to work in, and support the industry: Turner Valley, Black Diamond, Naptha, Hartell, Little Chicago and Little New York, now Longview. Major production facilities were built: the Turner Valley Gas Plant and the BA (British American) plant east of Longview, among others.
It was the beginning of an industry that would make Alberta one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada, and contribute mightily to Canada being one of the best and most modern countries in the world. (Right: BA Plant)
