Visitors from around the world will get glimpse of the cowboy way of life more than a century ago in an afternoon of entertainment south of Longview this weekend.
The Bar U Ranch National Historic Site will get visitors around a crackling campfire to connect with ranchers, historians, poets and musicians in its Roundup of Memories event on July 20 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the roundup camp beside Pekisko Creek.
“We all sit around the campfire and have cowboy coffee and listen to cowboy entertainment,” said Myriam Wilson, an interpreter at the Bar U Ranch. “If we connect though words we can connect to how people used to think, work and play back then in light of the range disappearing as cities continue growing. It’s a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.”
The lineup of entertainers include cowboy poet Buddy Gale of Calgary and musicians Charlie Hewing, of Claresholm, Jim Reader, of Okotoks, and Perry Jacobson, of High River.
Local ranchers will share tales of the early days of ranching while foothills historian Bill Dunn will talk about former Bar U rancher Herb Millar, who moved to the foothills from Chicago as a teenager in 1882 when Alberta was known as the Northwest Territories.
Dunn, a member of the Friends of the Bar U Ranch Historic Ranch Association and volunteer for the roundup camp, said this weekend’s event is a tribute to the days before grain farming, when a living was made out of raising cattle.
“Roundup camp represents the days before settlement in western Canada in the form of grain farming,” he said. “Roundups first started in the 1880s and continued right into the changes that took place in western Canada after 1900 when it was no longer open country.”
This weekend’s storytelling will bring some people back to an era that many know little about, while for others it’s a piece of family history, said Dunn.
“You are exposed to the culture, the music, the cowboy poetry and the story telling and have the chance to talk to some people that really did it,” he said. “We feel it’s very important for the heritage connected to the Bar U to include this as a special part of the program - let people know what it was like way back in the days when it was hard work and money was trying to be made out of raising beef.”
Wilson said Roundup of Memories is about connecting people to the cowboy culture, music and history from the open range era.
“Through human history people connect with people, so we invited folk who are connected to the culture through these art forms,” she said. “Roundup camps were home on the range for cowboys as they worked to round up cattle for a variety of ranches.”
Wilson said ranches like the Bar U owned thousands of head of cattle that roamed free before the days of fences. She said Bar U was one of the steadiest beef producers in Canada and the significance of past ranching practices is represented on the grounds.
“Round ups have been brought back into the Bar U layout so visitors can go back to their western roots,” she said. “It helps connect the dots to bring it home to folks.”
Roundup of Memories honours a way of life that is an important part of Albertan and Canadian history, Wilson said.
“We connect more cowboy life and ranching through music, storytelling and poetry,” she said. “People love that stuff. It puts a face to that Alberta culture and understanding a little more of what roundup is all about.”
