Gena LaCoste
Graburn, Striking a Pose
Graburn, Striking a Pose
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12X21" pen & ink and watercolour.
When western Canada opened up, cattlemen from the US heard about the vast plains of stirrup-deep grass, and drove their herds from as far south as Texas (Lonesome Dove anyone?) to Montana and Alberta. Longhorns comprised much of the breeding that these herds consisted of. My grand-dad and his brothers accompanied their dad from Ontario and participated in minding these herds of cattle open-range grazing through the late 1880’s and 90’s. Grandpa Armstrong and his brothers minded a herd of free-ranging bulls in the Cypress Hills during that time, before there were fences and the winters were mild and open.
Then came the winter of 06-07….famous to this day and called “the great die-off”. The snow came deep, brutal and hard in November and continued through till late spring, with one blizzard following another, and no way for thin-skinned longhorns to feed or withstand the -40 degree temperatures and punishing winds. I remember Grandpa and Uncle Will telling the tales of how they “pulled through” till spring, when they were able to emerge and assess the devastation.
Charlie Russell, the famous western artist, was cowboying just south of us in Montana through that winter, and when he was asked to report on the damage, he sent his famous painting “The Last of the 50,000” rather than waste a bunch of words on paper. That was the end of open range in Canada and the beginning of fences, shelters and putting up tons of hay, along with the importation of the hardier British Breeds.
I see little herds of longhorns here in Alberta now, and I love to stop and check them out…they’re so pretty, and so well care-for. The guy in my painting, for example, is lord of the range with his little herd of cows at the 2C Ranch, owned by young ranching friends, and is no danger of starving to death standing up in 40 below weather.
-photo credit Camille Reesor
