From wagon wheels to 18-wheelers, from Montana to Central Alberta, the Cowboy Trail leaves deep ruts of historic relevance reflected in the towns which now line highways once graced by Mounties and cattle drivers on horseback.

By Mary Savage

Horse drawn wagons are home bound after spring roudn-up, Mosquito Creek. Phil Weinard driving rear wagon, 1892. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Highwood, High River.

For anyone who has traveled along Highway 22, you can’t help but notice the iconic orange and black road signs that read: The Cowboy Trail. Many folks say the Trail is not so much a place as it is a feeling that comes from the mixed forests and rolling grasslands that are nestled along the eastern slopes on the Rockies. From Cardston to Mayerthorpe, the Cowboy Trail offers about 700 kilometers of history that dates back to the late 1800s where commerce included everything from fur trading and ranching to prospecting. For the ranchers, it was a time when cowboys drove cattle north, leaving Texas or Oklahoma in the springtime, and headed north to make the Canadian border by fall.

Some say The Cowboy Trail originated in Fort Benton, Montana, where the headwaters of paddle wheeler transportation provided much needed supplies to the growing population from about 1874 to 1885. At the time, a significant component was the North Western Mounted Police (NWMP) in conjunction with the growth of the railway – making river and bull-train transport obsolete. From Fort Benton, many folks headed north to Fort Macleod.

“People would sign up to drive the herds from the southern states and as they approached their destination, they would fork off,” says Neil MacLaine, president, Cowboy Trail Tourism Association.

“Other people argue the main trail, from which early pioneers split from, went to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Back then, the land wasn’t carved up with fences and roads, so they were driving the herds from waterhole to waterhole – where ever they could find grass and water to sustain their cattle.”

From mavericks and pioneers, the rustic landscape started to take shape and gave rise to the matted grassland corridors that were created and used by everyone en route. As more and more people traveled north, campsites became settlements, which in turn became communities. “Over time, an Indian trail is overlaid by a cowboy trail that eventually is overlaid with gravel, then pavement and becomes a highway,” adds MacLaine. “To some extent, you will find an irony in the evolution of the Trail. The very things that established it eventually were excluded from using it. Once the road became a major truck route, they started introducing laws requiring 24 hours notice before you could drive cattle along or across it.”

Fast-forward 100 years to find further irony with respect to how the landscape has changed the communities that reside along the Trail. “It was much easier to travel from ranch to ranch back then. You had a higher density of rural residency and every route was prepped for horse travel,” adds MacLaine. “The landscape is much less populated now than it was 100 years ago: it started swelling in 1874 when the Mounties first showed up, and the pace of rural growth really took off a decade later when the railroad came through. The rise of ranching and homesteading meant the rural population reached its peak before the Dirty Thirties, and has in general, been declining ever since.”

In the late 1990s, the rural communities along Highway 22 came together looking for a unifying theme to promote and preserve the region’s history. “Around 1999, a robust meeting took place to start talking about how to promote and preserve these communities. Initially the group included only communities as far north as Rocky Mountain House,” says MacLaine. “There were lots of iconic attractions along the trail that tied into the aboriginal and cowboy history of the province. Since then, the Cowboy Trail has expanded and become synonymous with Highway 22. It includes communities as far north as Mayerthrope.”

Today, The Cowboy Trail is home to over 60 tourism partners and about 180 events in 30 different towns, villages and hamlets. It also plays host to a wealth of activities to keep the communities connected, the tourists engaged, and the folklore alive. Although it is possible to drive the entire Trail in one day, most travelers break it up over a few days, enjoying the scenery and stories. From guest ranches and rodeos to historical sites and antiques shops, there is an abundance of things to see and do.

As for the original tracks laid by the Indians and settlers, all is not lost if you’ve got an afternoon to go exploring. In certain places, the ruts are still visible and yours to discover. “There are still places along the road where you’ll see a trail bed or an abandoned bridge or you will see ruts that have been reclaimed by nature, but you have to look for it,” said MacLaine. “And when you do find them, it makes your detective work more rewarding because you will likely feel a strange connection – this is what happened here once upon a time,” he adds with a twinkle in his eye.

-30-