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Gill Ross
Bar U Ranch Rodeo
Rodeo
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Parks Canada
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Parks Canada
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Parks Canada
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Parks Canada
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Parks Canada
Story and Photos courtesy Parks Canada
Want to taste some original camping cuisine? Head on out to the Chuckwagon Cook Off at the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site, about an hour south of Calgary, Alberta on Sunday June 8. Try beef stew & biscuits cooked over an open campfire and see if you think it would feed a crew of hungry and tired cowboys after a day on the range. Vote for your favourite in the People’s Choice award competition. The fires are lit at 11 a.m., and then it’s a race against time for the cooks, as the food has to be ready for tasting by 1 p.m.
Mike McLean, Acting Site Manager at the Bar U, says “what better way to capture our visitor’s hearts than through their stomachs! 2014 will mark the 6th annual cook-off and we usually attract about a dozen teams. Alberta Beef Producers donates 4 pounds of our province’s best beef but from there on, it’s up to the competitors. The proof is in the pudding or should I say the stew and biscuits”, he laughs, “you’ve got to come up with the right combination to please not only the judge’s palate but the crowd as well. I’ve competed myself for the last couple of years. It is nerve -racking cooking over an open fire against the clock, and with an audience. It gives you a bit of a feeling of how the round-up cooks felt at every meal!”
While you’re there, discover if you have what it takes to be an old time cowboy. Take a wagon ride with their Percherons, the gentle giant of horses. Try your hand at roping, watch blacksmith and leatherworking demonstrations, and listen to tales from the open range. And don’t forget to enjoy the magnificent setting along the Pekisko Creek in the foothills of Alberta amidst the tall grasses and prairie wildflowers of Alberta’s foothills.
The Bar U was one of the first and most enduring of the large corporate ranches from the golden era of the industry. New ranching practices were developed at the Bar U Ranch to keep up with the evolution from open range ranching to cow/calf feedlot agriculture. People had to look after themselves, as they were at least a full days‘ ride from Calgary. One of the owners of the Bar U Ranch, George Lane, along with other cattlemen, A.E. Cross, Archie McLean, and Pat Burns helped launch the first Calgary Stampede in 1912. McLean managed the ranch for a time after the death of Lane. Pat Burns bought the Bar U Ranch from George Lane’s estate, adding to an impressive food empire, with sales equivalent to a billion dollars in today’s currency. It is said Burns could travel from Calgary to the U.S border without leaving his property in the 1920s. The 1930s Great Depression was hard on the ranch, but good business practices allowed it to survive. The P. Burns Ranches sold the ranch to J. Allen Baker in 1950. Traditional cow/calf operations, feedlot and farming continued until a portion of the ranch was purchased by Parks Canada in 1993. It opened to the public in 1995.