I normally wouldn’t post back to back like this, but we are spending the next 2 days at the Calgary Stampedes, and I think that post might be overloaded!
We got into our campground, Calgary West, just after 11:00, and it was a riot trying to get all these big rigs parked in a old, cramped, unlevel campground. It was definitely not designed for 40+’ long RVs with slides on both sides. However it is the only campground in the city limits. After (almost) everyone was parked, we collected for a car pool to the Alberta Heritage Center. I was only lukewarm, and I was, again, thrilled with the venue.
There is a semi-modern section when you arrive, and we started looking at cars from the early 1900s through the 1920s in their automobile exhibit. There were dozens of fancy roadsters.
But I was amazed at the number of fully restored and operational work vehicles.
Oil delivery truckA basic delivery vanAnother oil truckThey even let people get in some of the trucks
I found it interesting that they use period trucks to deliver workers and goods when guests are in the facility.
Note the period clothing too
After we left the automobile area, we visited the main area of the 1910s or so. Lots and lots of buildings plus lots of docents and guest workers in period costume. This is only a small number of the buildings in this section.
The Wainright Hotel was THE place to beThe bank had a second floor access to be used to shoot robbers!An impressive town hallThe local Mountie talked to us a whileWe got a coupon for a free ice cream cone as part of our admission.
We only spent time in one other era, the Settlement. This represented the period of fur trading by the Hudson Bay Company.
There was a clerk at the Hudson Bay officesAnd there had to be a church of courseThe sauna was an unexpected additionShows the tradition from early settlement to more modern times
The facility covers dozens of acres. There is an old-time amusement park, a farm, and so many other beautiful things. We both said we wanted to come back on another trip, but hopefully on a cooler day.
The next two days we will be at the Calgary Stampede. Long days so I don’t expect time to post. We are on another long day the third day sightseeing some of the classic Banff National Park locations on a bus tour. Not the way I would have gone if we did it on our own (we would probably have spent 3 days!), but it will be a sampler. At least I can sleep on the bus on the way back!
Data on my cell phone is restricted to 0.5GB a day, so I will have to be cautious with how many pictures I post. I took a lot more than I put here!
We left Great Falls headed to Sweetgrass/Coutts to cross the border early on Saturday morning. The drive was uneventful, and we arrived at 10:45. There was a long line of 10+ vehicles and only one border agent processing us. Finally another lane opened, and after a few brief questions by a very nice border agent (“Do you have guns, cannabis, mace?”) we were on our way in 30 minutes. There is a huge truck parking/rest area immediately after the border where we had lunch. Then we headed to our first stop, Cardston, AB. We took Hwy 502 for most of the drive, and souther Alberta is GORGEOUS! There are gently rolling hills covered with knee high prairie grass interspersed with yellow canola and purple alfalfa fields all against a back drop of snow covered craggy mountains.
Hwy 501 from north of Coutts
We got into our campground, Lee Creek, and went to pick up Canadian currency and groceries at the closest grocery store. You can’t take fruits of vegetables into Canada from the US, so we stocked up. Then we went to the Remington Carriage Museum which was amazing. They have the largest collection of horse drawn carriages in the world with about 350 in the current collection. We got a nice carriage ride around the grounds as part of our tour, but, sadly, my pictures of the horses and carriage didn’t work out.
The man who started the collection was a local rancher who obviously had time on his hands. He started with a single horse drawn sleigh for a Christmas parade and fully restored it. After that he was hooked. He willed 50 carriages, all restored by him, to the province of Alberta who agreed to build a museum and bring in other carriages stored in other museums. Here is a sampling of the museum.
this was an inexpensive csrriage, $20. It came in a box as pictured on the left.
A quality doctor’s csrriage.
And then there were the really fancy ones!
Carriages were literally stacked to the ceiling. There are rows and rows of storage like this.
The legendary Conestoga wagons were also represented.
As were heavy wagons for hauling.
And I added this one for my daughter in law who works for John Deere. It is a McCormick broadcast seeder next to a school bus. I didn’t see any John Deere rigs.
We left on Sunday for Fort MacLeod and Rivers Edge campground. Along the way we stopped at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police museum which is located in the historic Fort MacLeod. It was an optional stop for our caravan, but it was well worth the 2 hours we spent there. Not only was the museum interesting, presenting both the history of the Mounties and giving this newbie a good overview of the settlement of western Canada.
This is the current fort recreation. A number of the buildings still are of primarily original construction, but they have had newer pieces added for repairs.
And here is a diorama of the old fort.
They also have something they call “The Musical Ride” which was 7 riders doing cavalry drills of all types while music played in the background. It wasn’t as crazy as it sounds. While posted at what was then the edge of civilization in a harsh climate, the Mounties used advanced cavalry drills for competition and recreation. Setting the work to music just made it more fun. The riders are local youngsters from the ages of 13 to 20.
We got set up at our campground and went as a group to Heads-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Center. Another great place that totally exceeded my expectations. We had a local Indian docent who discussed the native tribes and their way of life, watched a very well produced movie about how an entire tribe would cooperate to drive the buffalo over the jump, and how they would then cooperatively butcher the animals, using every piece from head to tail. Almost nothing went to waste. I can hardly imagine the amount of work it took to completely process 100-300 buffalo within the 2-3 days with stone and bone tools, but they did it. This particular jump was used for nearly 6000 years, and the last kill was only in the mid 1800s meaning the lore was still in oral tradition. Oh, and the views were as open as any I have ever seen!
The top bluff was where the jump was made.
And those views!
We move again on Monday to Calgary and the Calgary Stampede.
