Harry and The Horse

Harry Ezra Balfour was born April 26, 1893, at Gore's Landing, Ontario, the only son of the very dour Reverend David Balfour of the local Methodist Church.  Harry chafed under the stifling religiosity at home.  (Once he broke his nose in a fist fight - a real transgression for the son of a minister - but it stood him in good stead later in life.)  Educated at various southern Ontario locations, he completed Grade 12 at Albert College in Belleville at age 16.  He immediately departed his rigid religious upbringing (having attended church services four times every Sunday all of his young life), and embarked on some training as a teacher.  (Thus he always said he was "paid up" re: church attendance through age 64, and never attended services again except for marriages, christenings, and funerals.  Furthermore, as the brilliant intellect he was, he became a lifelong fervent atheist.)  But he ran out of money for teacher training, and headed west as did many others swept up in the great western migration of 1900-1915, when more than a million people immigrated and settled in the three prairie provinces of western Canada.  He took a "harvester's special" train west in 1911 and got off at Fort Walsh, Alberta, where he found work as laborer on a harvesting gang, ranch cook, and cowboy near Irvine, AB.  (Alberta was only four years old herself, formerly known as the Northwest Territory until provincehood was bestowed in 1905.)  Later, when it was discovered that he was "educated" he stayed on at Walsh as a school teacher before heading to Calgary.

In this 1911 photo, Harry and "L. Cruess" are seen practicing their roping skills on a ranch near Medicine Hat, Alberta.  Below he is playing the guitar while a fellow cowboy cleans a firearm.

On (and off) The Horse

It struck me the other day that many Albertans will have only a passing acquaintance - or none at all - with The Horse.  Whereas a hundred years ago everyone knew how to ride and care for their steed (or team thereof), the horseless carriage led to a horseless urban society with dizzying speed.  I always felt fortunate to have had riding lessons as a child during the fifties in Lethbridge, which instilled in me a healthy respect for equines - although not much more at the time due to a serious allergy to same.  In fact, it was not until our move Out Here in 1976 that I became re-acquainted with the culture of the horse.   By then my allergies were under control, and frequent invitations to help the neighbours move their bovine herds here or there - coupled with the occasional all-day cattle drive - soon had me pretty comfy in the saddle again.  (Yes, that is a frame from Billy Crystal's "City Slickers" movie.   Draw your own conclusions, but please keep them to yourself.)  "Comfy" hardly describes the condition of your butt after an all-day cattle drive, however, and combined with soaking wet boots from pushing the herd across the Castle River, makes for an ache or two the next day or three.  Roping from the saddle didn't go so well either, but all in all the horse had re-entered this city kid's consciousness to some extent.  The next natural development (you knew it was coming) was our acquisition of a couple of ponies for both the education and enjoyment of our children.  Joey and Chico were both mature (if not full-size) hay-burners when we acquired them and, although generally gentle, they failed to capture the imagination of our kids for more than a couple of years.  Still, the experience was a good one for all concerned.  The vet bills, worm medicine, hay purchases, winter feeding, hoof clipping, etc. eventually culminated in us donating them to another family with young kids.  But I digress.  The point I'd like to make is that The Horse never really left rural Canadian society the way it disappeared in the cities.  Out Here they're still the best thing to see the back country on, and the best thing for rounding up cattle, hunting big game, etc.  (Thank Buddha, quads can't go everywhere, do periodically require gas, and do occasionally malfunction.)  In fact, there are lots of horses Out Here, and lots of folks who ride 'em.  Yahoo!

Stewart Cameron, Cowboy Cartoonist

By Ken Mather in Canadian Cowboy Country (2003):  "Stew Cameron was a cowboy at heart but a cartoonist by profession. Throughout his life, he gave the gift of his remarkable talent and humour in a series of delightful cartoons depicting the cowboy way of life.  Stewart Cameron was born in 1912 in Calgary and it is no coincidence that the year marked the beginning of another Alberta institution, the Calgary Stampede and Exhibition.  Stew grew up in Calgary and began demonstrating his amazing talent to draw cartoons at an early age.  By the time he was in high school, he was submitting his drawings to the Calgary Herald, and was recognized as an up-and-coming young artist.  Stew went on to study art at Mount Royal College and such was his talent that he was offered a job at the newly created Disney Studios in Hollywood.  This opportunity seemed to be all a young cartoonist could hope for.  But, after a brief stint at Disney, Stew began to long for his native foothills and a simpler life.  At that point, he took a job at the Calgary Herald as their full-time editorial cartoonist.  Political life in Alberta at the time was far from dull.  The Social Credit Party had recently come to power and its leader, Premier William Aberhart, was a caricaturist's dream.  Big and blustery "Bible Bill" Aberhart and his sometimes-questionable right wing policies became the regular butt of Stew's cartoons.  His artistic attacks on Aberhart were not well received by the Social Credit faithful, many of whom threatened Stew with physical injury.  It got to the point that Cameron had to leave the Herald building by the fire escape to avoid confrontation at the main entrance.  The political passions reached their zenith when unknown attackers bombed Cameron's house.  Stew was not in the house at the time, and the bombers probably knew that, but their message was clear: leave Aberhart alone!  Undeterred, Stew continued to use his mighty pen to skewer the Premier and his Social Credit policies.  In spite of Stew's cartoons, William Aberhart was re-elected Premier in 1940.  But, even as Stew continued to attack Aberhart's policies, the world's attention was drawn elsewhere.  World War II had broken out.  Stew strongly supported the war effort in the face of Social Credit's lukewarm commitment but he was prepared to offer more than his pen when it came to offering support.  He enlisted in the Canadian Army and served throughout the war.  When he returned to Calgary after the war, Stew found that things had changed.  His favourite subject, William Aberhart, had passed away and the Social Credit Party had adjusted many of its more extreme policies.  He went back to the Herald for a couple of years but, in 1947, took a job at the Vancouver Daily Province.  When his health began to fail in 1949, he returned to his beloved Calgary.  There he finished out his days doing freelance work and publishing collections of his cartoons.  As a young student, Stew had spent his summers running his own pack-string in the Rockies, west of Calgary.  He came to know the pack trails of the foothills and mountains like his own backyard.  In the process he developed a friendship and, above all, a respect for the ranchers and the working cowboys who made their home in the rugged backcountry of the foothills.  Stew loved the daily work with horses and his knowledge of the capabilities and personalities of horses grew along with his artistic ability to draw them.  His drawings show knowledge of every muscle and contour of the working cow horse.  It is not surprising then that his love for the country and personalities found its natural expression in cartoons as he faithfully and humorously portrayed the cowboys, the horses and, of course, the "dudes."  The adventures and misadventures of day-to-day life on the trail were Stew's favourite subjects.  Among these early gems are his delightful series of drawings about his first and favourite horse, Count Von Krut otherwise known as "The Strawberry Roan."  These early cartoons sat in his files for years as his attention was focused elsewhere, on the political life of Alberta.  But they were never forgotten, nor were Stew's love for the cowboy and his way of life.  Stew's early interest in the cowboy had continued when he was at the Calgary Herald.  His cartoons of the Calgary Stampede show a unique insight into rodeo and the rodeo cowboy's life that has seldom been duplicated.  His attention to detail is amazing and sometimes a close examination of the background in his cartoons tells us as much as the subject in the foreground.  Stew found the professional rodeo cowboys as rugged and genuine as the tough working cowboys of his youth and, with his keen eye and irrepressible sense of humour, his cartoons told their story.  A large selection of his early pack string cartoons, along with some of his best cartoons of the Calgary Stampede, were collected by his family and published in 1972 in four thin books, What I Saw at the Stampede, Let the Chaps Fall Where They May, Weep for The Cowboy, and Pack Horse in the Rockies (Dudes, Denims and Diamond Hitches).  These contain some of the best of Stew's cowboy cartoons and represent a lasting chronicle of cowboy life in the 1930s and 1940s that would make any artist proud.  Unfortunately, by the time of their publication, Stew Cameron had passed over the Great Divide.  But his legacy lives on as one of the true recorders of Western heritage." - Ken Mather has been involved in researching and writing about Western Canadian history for 32 years.  He is currently the General Manager of the Interior Provincial Exhibition in Armstrong, B.C.

The Calgary Stampede

AKA The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.  The Stampede's roots are traced to 1886 when the Calgary and District Agricultural Society held its first fair.  American promoter Guy Weadick launched his first rodeo in 1912 and returned to Calgary in 1919 to organize the Victory Stampede to honour soldiers returning from World War I.  It became an annual event in 1923 when it merged with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition to create the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede.  For the very first 1923 Rangeland Derby, Stampede founder Guy Weadick convinced a number of working ranches to enter their authentic chuckwagons and roundup crews.  As years passed entries varied dramatically, with fewer than twenty and more than forty wagons competing at the event.  In 1975 the Stampede decided to limit its entries to the top 32 outfits from the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. This all changed after the CPRA strike of 1979 when members of the Northern Chuckwagon Association and some 'independent' drivers replaced the pros.  In 1982 the Stampede invited the professionals back to compete with the Northern drivers and independents.  Eventually the independents were eliminated and the top 18 drivers from each association automatically qualified for the Stampede.  The Stampede has recently reverted back to its invitational process by inviting the top 12 outfits from the previous year's Derby to join a selection of drivers from the two professional circuits.  Big Ian could add many details to the above, having served on the Stampede Board for decades.  One thing I mean to ask him next week is when the winner of the "chucks" ceased being determined by setting up camp and watching for smoke emanating from the cookstove.