It’s a rip-roarin’, rootin’-tootin’ good time and it happens every July. For 10 days, grown men and women parade city streets in cowboy hats, fancy shirts, jeans and boots without the least sense of embarrassment about “playing cowpoke”. But then that’s what the Calgary Stampede is all about: having fun and letting the western spirit run wild.
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the Stampede. It was started by Guy Weadick, a cowboy from Montana, who convinced four Calgary business men to “pony up” $50,000 each to inaugurate a lasting tribute to cowboys and to the western culture. Ironically, Weadick was a city-slicker from New York City, but his restless spirit drew him west and led to the founding of the world’s most important rodeo event.
Thanks to another cowpoke, Wildhorse Jack, while you’re in town for the Stampede you’ll never have to pay for breakfast. In 1923, Jack tore into town in his chuckwagon and gave free flapjacks and bacon to all comers. In emulation of his good-neighborliness, sponsors flip pancakes and pass them out to the multitudes all through downtown Calgary during the ten days of the festivities.
The Stampede has grown and changed over the years, now featuring a carnival midway with rides and games galore, a First Nations Village, agricultural and art expositions, and of course the rodeo events and chuckwagon races, or “chucks”. The afternoon rodeo events cover the range of bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and barrel racing (which takes place on horseback despite the name). The evening events begin with chuckwagon races, so fast and thrilling that even Ben Hur would have been impressed. After dark a stage and sets miraculously sprout from the dirt track and a Vegas quality grandstand show delights the audience. The finale is a fireworks display followed by an equally spectacular traffic jam as everyone tries to leave at the same time. My advice would be to spend a little time after the show ends in the midway, playing a few games or taking in the Ferris wheel, enjoying spectacular views of the midway and the Calgary skyline. For the more adventurous and less nausea prone there are some truly vertiginous rides. I should know. Thirteen-year-old Meaghan dragged me onto one. Also accompanying were my four-year-old daughter and my wife, Krista. We spent a total of two days touring the grounds and enjoying the ambiance of the Stampede.
During the afternoon rodeo show, I left the young ones on safer ground with mom and managed to find my way back to the “chutes”. Standing directly behind the stalls, which temporarily hold the horses and bulls before their release, I had a buzzard’s-eye-view of the proceedings. Although riding mean-looking Brahma bulls looks pretty formidable, it’s said that the most physically demanding event is bareback riding. In this the rider is allowed to hold on with only one hand, gripping the leather “rigging” cinched around the horse. He must let the other hand wave freely with points deducted for touching the horse or the rigging.
Being stationed only a few feet away from the riders and animals, I could feel the incredible tension between animal and rider. In each case as the chute slid open, the pair burst forward like a tightly coiled spring, the ground shuddering as they exited. I marveled at the pounding and shaking these elite athletes endured.
After watching the rodeo I ventured into the rest area where riders relaxed and recuperated after their event. Here, a complete team of healthcare volunteers looks after the athletes. These include chiropractors, massage therapists, athletic trainers and even an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Laurie Hiemstra, who donates her time to the rodeo. She introduced me to one of her patients, a rider named Trevor who told me he had torn both anterior cruciate ligaments. In fact Dr. Hiemstra estimated she’d operated on about a quarter of the day’s riders!
“In addition to the usual array of concussions and knee injuries, bareback riders suffer arm injuries due to the amount of punishment the single arm holding the rigging absorbs,” Dr. Hiemstra told me. “It’s crucial to make sure the arm holding the rigging is adequately supported and well taped before venturing out.”
Later, I met up with Dr. John Zubis. Born and bred an Albertan, he grew up riding horses and has been head honcho for the medical end of the Stampede for over twenty years. Dr. Zubis told me his medical background included family practice and emergentology. He and his team were responsible for immobilizing and retrieving any seriously injured riders. Fortunately there were no serious injuries that afternoon.
From the rodeo it was off to the agricultural exhibits. Ariana marveled at miniature donkeys which she had the opportunity to pet. Also in evidence were myriad sheep, cows, horses, pigs and steers, enough to keep even Old MacDonald occupied. The kids could try their hands at milking an artificial cow and even participate in a John-Deere miniature tractor pull.
Afterwards we made our way to the First Nations Village. Local tribes, including Blackfoot, Stoney and Siksika, had constructed a teepee village and demonstrated traditional dances in colorful costumes. One dance involved incredible convolutions with colored hoops. “I guess you call that dancer the ‘lord of the rings’ I whispered to my wife.” An elbow in the ribs was her reply.
Sitting inside one teepee, I listened to a Siksika woman describe traditional healing techniques. I found being in her dwelling as she spoke unusually calming and for several minutes felt completely isolated from the throngs outside.
Afterwards it was back to the midway for a bison burger (the meat is very lean and tasty). Along the way we stopped and listened to country and western talent and even a “cowboy poet”. I couldn’t bypass the Country and Western Museum which had memorabilia from such Nova Scotia artists as Hank Snow, Wilf Carter and Anne Murray. The museum is now adding a section with rodeo heroes.
Of course not all the action in Calgary happens on the Stampede grounds. Walking along Stephen Avenue, now pedestrian only, we enjoyed the century-old neoclassical buildings while listening to buskers and checking out the menus in a variety of restaurants. We also ran into the Dalton Gang who were much friendlier than reputed. They even posed for photos. Rope Square, near the old and new city halls, provides a venue for live entertainment in the morning and is a great place to chow down on free pancakes and bacon at breakfast time. My wife even spotted her cousin, a Calgary businessman, judging a hat stomping contest.
If you stay in downtown Calgary, there is no better place than the Palliser Fairmont Hotel. Built by Canadian Pacific Rail in 1914, this grand old hotel was built in Edwardian Commercial Style and had a recent $30 million update. A ten-minute walk from the Stampede Grounds, it saves you the trouble of trying to find a parking spot (as well as saving us three day’s car rental cost). The Palliser is also right next to the 130 meter high Calgary Tower where you can take in a great view of the entire city and the Bow River. You can terrify yourself and the kids by standing on the clear Plexiglas floors of the Tower and looking down at the pavement far below. Dine well at the Tower’s Panorama Dining Room while you slowly circle 360 degrees.
After three days we rented a car and fled the city, heading for my wife’s family re-union. I played hooky one day and explored Drumheller and the Badlands and had lunch in a ghost town. But that’s another story.
IF YOU GO…
1. Tourism Calgary, Suite 200, 238 11th Ave. SE. Calgary, AB T2G 0X8. Tel (800) 661-1678; www.tourismcalgary.com
2. Fairmont Palliser, 133 9th Ave. SW, Calgary, AB T2P 2M3. Tel (800) 441-1414; www.fairmont.com/palliser
3. Calgary Stampede: For advance tickets (recommended) call (800) 661-1767 or go to www.calgarystampede.com
Photo Credits
All photos by George Burden
“no bull”-brahma bull used in rodeo
“cattle baron caddie”
bronco riding event
“cowboy tete-a-tete” two cowboys take in the events
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