Introduction | Bison Economy | Kootisaw | Fort Calgary | Ranching | Agriculture
1895-1946 | 1947-1970 | 1971-1991 | Oil & Gas | Diversification | Ethnicity | Labour | Women
Calgary & Southern Alberta
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Stable, productive settlement of the West, an essential component of the Conservative government's national policy, was, by definition, agrarian settlement. The government sent surveyors to divide the land into townships in 1871. It enacted the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 in the hope of attracting millions of hard-working farmers. The continuing debate about the suitability of southern Alberta for regular agriculture, however, impeded the government's aspiration. During this period, the activities of early settlers, the NWMP and American merchandising companies prompted the Conservative government to reconsider its settlement plan and, at least in the short term, support ranching. A few early settlers had tried various ways to make the land productive. Their efforts indicated that while farming might still be questionable in southern Alberta, several factors made the area ideal for ranching. The warm Chinook winds regularly alleviated excessive snow accumulation, and the plentiful distribution of coulees provided ample shelter from the cold temperatures. As well, abundant native grasses and mountain streams fed and watered range cattle, which thus needed few supplements. NWMP reports also confirmed that cattle survived exceedingly well on the open range. The police contributed more than just information about the range country. Their presence provided both the security and market required to establish a growing cattle business. Moreover, when their terms of enlistment expired, a number of former policemen entered into the cattle business themselves. The success in southern Alberta of the American merchandising companies of I. G. Baker and T. C. Power offered further proof of the region's suitability for cattle raising. These thriving Montana companies brought stock, capital and expertise to an area that lacked all three. The companies demonstrated the economic viability of ranching. However, it was another element of their business that particularly attracted Prime Minister Macdonald's attention. Allocating money to provision both the police and the First Nations was a federal responsibility. Since the Montana companies were the only available beef suppliers, the federal government was, in essence, supporting the transfer of money and profits across the border. |
Branding Cattle Courtesy of Parks Canada
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All of these factors indicated the need for a domestic cattle business. The promotion of the "Beef Bonanza" in the American West, moreover, was attracting eastern American and European investors to US range country, and involving large corporations in the cattle business to the south. When British and Canadian investors showed interest in Alberta, Macdonald eagerly accommodated them, establishing a long-term lease system which would be the foundation of open range ranching.
MacDonald's system allowed the leasing of 100,000 acres for up to twenty-one years at an annual rental of one cent per acre. By substantially reducing capital expenditures, such a system encouraged entrepreneurs to invest heavily. By 1885, four cattle companies alone controlled 42 percent of the total leased acreage in southern Alberta. A decade later, some two hundred large-scale cattlemen controlled the entire region.
Ranching in this period was profit-oriented big business. From 1882 until 1905, the cattle business dominated the primary production sector of southern Alberta's economy. Total Canadian exports of live cattle to international markets in 1884, for example, were valued at over $11 million, with Alberta claiming the lion's share. In addition to generating revenues from cattle exports, the industry supported early manufacturing because it required centralised facilities such as stockyards, slaughterhouses, meat packing and processing plants.
The power of the cattlemen was not simply economic, however. While most cattlemen came from wealthy, upper-class eastern Canadian and British backgrounds, even those who did not share this same background quickly established themselves as part of the social and political elite. Through their political connections, entrepreneurial ventures and civic participation, cattlemen made significant contributions to the early development of Calgary and southern Alberta, and left a unique legacy to its western heritage.
A series of factors prior to 1914 eventually led to the steady decline of the industry's dominant role in the economy, and the socio-political power of the cattlemen. Many men who had invested in the "Beef Bonanza" before 1905 as a low-risk, high-profit venture sold out. The cattlemen who remained endeavoured to place ranching on more solid footing by scaling down operations, increasing winter feeding or diversifying production. After the Depression devastated the farming industry in the 1930s, however, the government reconsidered its land use policies, particularly in the southernmost areas of the western prairies, and enacted legislation designed to re-establish viable ranching and community livestock grazing.
The availability of large tracts of appropriate land, sufficient quantities of feed grains and the natural shelter of southern Alberta's topography continued to support large-scale beef production during the 1960s and 1970s. Expansion of meatpacking plants in Calgary, and increasing use of commercial feedlots to finish cattle also helped rejuvenate the beef economy. During the last two decades, more operations have developed that rely heavily or entirely on livestock for their income.
