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THE CALGARY

STAMPEDE

Icon, Brand, Myth:

THE CALGARY

STAMPEDE

Icon, Brand, Myth:

edited by Max Foran

The West Unbound:

Social and Cultural Studies series

©2008 AU Press

Published by AU Press, Athabasca University

1200, 10011 – 109 Street

Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing

in Publication

Icon, brand, myth : the Calgary Exhibition and

Stampede / edited by Max Foran.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued also in electronic format.

ISBN 978-1-897425-03-9 (bound)

ISBN 978-1-897425-05-3 (pbk.)

1. Calgary Stampede–History.

2. Calgary Stampede–Social aspects.

3. Calgary (Alta.)–History.

4. Calgary (Alta.)–Social conditions.

I. Foran, Max

GV1834.56.C22C3 2008 791.8’409712338 C2008-902106-1

This book is part of the The West Unbound:

Social and Cultural Studies series

ISSN 1915-8181 (print)

ISSN 1915-819X (electronic)

Printed and bound in Canada by AGMV Marquis

Cover and book design by Alex Chan, Studio Reface

All photographs and illustrations courtesy Calgary Stampede,

except for the following: Fiona Angus: p. 128; Max Foran:

p. 159, 160; Glenbow Archives: p. 8: NA-628-1; p. 21:

NA-81-1; p. 61: NA-446-111; p. 73: PA-1326-9; p. 89:

NA-5627-33; p. 101: NA-1722-2; p. 147: NA-2864-29706;

p. 274: NA-2376-1; p. 315: fig. 2; Stéphane Guevremont:

all photographs on pp. 266–267; Library of Congress: p. 175:

LC-USZ62-78721.

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons

License, see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be

reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that

credit is given to the original author(s).

Please contact AU Press, Athabasca University at

[email protected] for permission beyond the usage

outlined in the Creative Commons license.

To my longtime friend, Doug Chapman

– Max Foran

VI

Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 The Stampede in Historical Context 1

Max Foran

Chapter 2 Making Tradition: The Calgary Stampede, 1912–1939 21

Donald G. Wetherell

Chapter 3 The Indians and the Stampede 47

Hugh A. Dempsey

Chapter 4 Calgary’s Parading Culture Before 1912 73

Lorry W. Felske

Chapter 5 Midway to Respectability: Carnivals at the 111

Calgary Stampede

Fiona Angus

Chapter 6 More Than Partners: The Calgary Stampede 147

and the City of Calgary

Max Foran

Chapter 7 Riding Broncs and Taming Contradictions: 175

Reflections on the Uses of the Cowboy in the

Calgary Stampede

Tamara Palmer Seiler

Chapter 8 A Spurring Soul: A Tenderfoot’s Guide to the 203

Calgary Stampede Rodeo

Glen Mikkelsen

Chapter 9 The Half a Mile of Heaven’s Gate 235

Aritha van Herk

Chapter 10 “Cowtown It Ain’t”: The Stampede and Calgary’s 251

Public Monuments

Frits Pannekoek

VII

Chapter 11 “A Wonderful Picture”: Western Art and the 271

Calgary Stampede

Brian Rusted

Chapter 12 The Social Construction of the Canadian Cowboy: 293

Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Posters, 1952–1972

Robert M. Seiler and Tamara Palmer Seiler

Chapter 13 Renewing the Stampede for the 21st Century: 325

A Conversation with Vern Kimball, Calgary Stampede

Chief Executive Officer

Bibliography 335

Contributors 348

Index 351

VIII

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the contributors to this volume, the genesis of which

dates back to 2004 and the Faculty of Communication and Culture’s inaugu￾ral course on the culture of the Stampede. Their time, effort, and co-operation

are greatly appreciated. I would also like to acknowledge the support and co￾operation of the Calgary Stampede and especially its generosity in supplying

most of the visuals that appear in the book. Here a special thanks goes to

Tracey Read, manager, Government Relations and Community Partnership,

who helped me so much in so many ways.

Max Foran

University of Calgary

November 2007

IX

Introduction

The idea for this book came as a result of the inaugural course on the Calgary

Exhibition and Stampede (Calgary Stampede as of spring 2007) offered by

the Faculty of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary in the

summer of 2004. This innovative course was based on guest lectures, many

of which were delivered by members of the above faculty. At a get-together

following the course there was general agreement among participants that the

various lectures might serve a wider purpose if they were transformed into

articles and made available to a larger audience. All of the contributors to this

book either lectured or were the subjects of reference in the three Stampede

courses offered in the summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006.

The course itself grew out of a growing awareness that the Stampede

has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Similar events are held annually

throughout North America. Midways, rodeos, parades, performances, and

agricultural and other exhibits are all part of an annual fairground tradition

in countless cities and towns, yet none evokes reactions as does the Calgary

Stampede. Growing up as a boy in Sydney, Australia, I visited the Royal Eas￾ter Show every year and was drawn in wonderment to scenes and events very

similar to those I was to encounter later in another country and another city.

Yet when I donned western garb to attend my first Stampede in 1964, feeling

strange and out of place, I had already been imbued with the notion that I

was now part of something special, a festive tradition unique to Calgary. In a

way, my impression was valid. Unlike the Royal Easter Show, the Stampede

was not simply attended; it was experienced. I learned my first and probably

most important lesson about the Stampede that day: it had more to do with

the act of participation than with offered opportunities. Paradoxically, it has

been this capacity to embody a significance that transcends the sum of its

various components that explains in part why the Stampede is held in such

high and low regard.

The Calgary Stampede can claim many legitimacies. It hosts the premier

event in a popular professional sport. In addition to being of significant eco￾nomic worth to the city, the Stampede is based on a valid historic tradition

that dates to the late nineteenth century and provides in many ways an inter￾pretive window into the historical development of the prairie and foothills

West. The Stampede has supported agriculture and the livestock industry

for almost a century while promoting sports and western art and showcasing

other events of cultural and social importance. Its capacity to solicit and orga￾nize phenomenal volunteer support is the envy of organizations worldwide.

X INTRODUCTION

And like it or not, the Calgary Stampede has become a world-class festival

that spills out into the streets and carries its own messages within a spectrum

of ritual, performance, celebration, and spectacle.

Yet as successful as the Stampede has been in attracting visitors and perpet￾uating its own popularity, it has also garnered considerable antipathy. Some

criticize the Stampede for adhering to middle-class white Anglo-Saxon male

values. Others view the Stampede as a money-making machine run by elites

that exploits heritage in the interests of profit. A growing number protest the

exploitation of animals. Some see the Stampede as little more than a giant

hoax whereby illusions are cultivated, dressed up, packaged, and sold without

shame. Still others wince at the folly of trying to embed a hokey, hackneyed

event into the psyche and image of a dynamic city seeking global status.

Crucial in these allegiances and antipathies is the place of myth in the col￾lective consciousness. Those who see the Stampede as a event during which fun

and nostalgia mix freely do not recognize or care about myth. Similarly, those

who appreciate myth, who see it as an agent for collective identification, a focus

for the localization of universal values, or an entry point for personal interpre￾tations, also have no difficulty accepting and participating in the Stampede

cornucopia. Oppositely, it is the regenerating and exploitative capacity of this

myth that draws the intense and largely recent criticism of the Stampede. Many

cringe at its distortion of history, whereby fantasy is superimposed on fact with

layers of glitz, bombast, and commercial hype. These critics see the Stampede

as a giant hoax and an anachronism in an urban environment.

The following articles do not attempt to idealize or destroy this myth, nor

is their intention to laud or denigrate the Stampede, although they do contain

elements of all the above. With some overlapping, unavoidable in a collection

of this type, the articles try to provide some perspectives of the enigma that

is the Calgary Stampede. Collectively they attempt to answer several ques￾tions: What is the reality behind its origins and various components? What

messages does the Stampede try to deliver? How did the Stampede go about

cultivating its traditions? Where does the City of Calgary fit in? What can the

Stampede tell us about First Nations and their treatment? Is the Stampede

about more than rodeo, the midway, and artificiality? How can the rodeo and

chuckwagon races be explained to urban and international audiences? Who

is the cowboy? What are the Stampede organizers’ visions for the future?

The articles are wide-ranging in length, subject, tone, approach, and inter￾pretation. Some focus on the Stampede and discuss it in a specific context.

Others use the Stampede to explore pertinent themes. Together they furnish a

heightened understanding and provide a useful forum for further discourse.

ICON, BRAND, MYTH: THE CALGARY STAMPEDE XI

The opening article by Max Foran places the Stampede in its historical

context and in effect sets the stage for the more focused articles to follow.

He explains the Stampede’s unusual composition and discusses its multiple

origins. Foran emphasizes the Stampede’s close relationship with agriculture

and argues that it has been pivotal in ensuring Calgary’s continuing impor￾tance as a livestock centre. He also feels that in order to appreciate the extent

of the Stampede’s contribution to Calgary, it is necessary to separate the ten￾day July event from the larger year-round operations of its parent body.

Don Wetherell contends that the Stampede cultivated an invented tradi￾tion from the outset. He identifies the formative forces as the role of sport

in ennobling manly characteristics, the legitimization of rodeo as a public

spectator activity, and the ability of the inaugural Stampedes to inspire simi￾lar events elsewhere in the province. After 1923 the annual Exhibitions and

Stampedes melded the values of the farmer and rancher with those of the

rodeo performer to create both the iconic cowboy and the idealized sanitized

virtues for which he stood. Wetherell locates this invented tradition within a

risk-taking continuum. He also points out the exclusive place of risk-takers

in the invented tradition paradigm. Minorities and the marginalized simply

do not qualify.

The historic involvement of First Nations and the Stampede is docu￾mented by Hugh A. Dempsey, noted authority on the history of Plains

Indians. Dempsey discusses the early involvement of First Nations people

in Calgary fairs and traces their association with the Stampede to modern

times. He deals extensively with the ongoing dispute with the Indian Affairs

Department over the right of First Nations to participate in the Stampede, as

well as conflicts between First Nations and Stampede administrators. How￾ever, while acknowledging the latter, Dempsey describes a mainly positive

relationship and suggests that in many ways the Stampede acted to preserve

First Nations traditions and artifacts.

Lorry Felske focuses on the parade that heralds the beginning of every

Stampede. He discusses the importance of parades as statements of both

diversity and homogeneity and examines the messages they embody. Most

significantly, Felske argues that the first Stampede parade of 1912 did not

begin a tradition, but rather was a continuing manifestation of a strong

parading history in the city. In asserting that the inaugural Stampede parade

simply built on existing practices, Felske locates an important dimension of

the Calgary Stampede not in the tradition of the Wild West Shows and other

vaudeville-type entertainment from which it grew, but in the daily life expe￾riences and street culture of a small western Canadian urban community.

XII INTRODUCTION

Noting the marginalized but important function of the midway, Fiona

Angus sets the Stampede midway in historical and social context. She con￾tends that despite its sanitization over the years, the midway’s ambience has

complemented the myth of the Stampede. Angus provides extensive details,

both in the text and in endnotes, about the two major companies that have

held the midway contracts for most of the Stampede’s existence, describing

the police investigation that led to the disappearance of Royal American

Shows from Canada and the operations of its successor, Conklin Shows.

Though she calls attention to the inherently exploitive nature of the rela￾tionship between the midway and its workforce, Angus also sees the midway

as adaptable and flexible and credits Conklin with the ability to adjust to

changing social mores, demands, and technologies.

In his article on the relationship between the City of Calgary and the

Stampede, Max Foran dismisses the contention that the two were collusive.

Instead, he argues that they were one and the same, which, he contends,

explains their close co-operation. In a discussion of the two expansion issues,

he also qualifies the popular perception that the city has consistently been

a pawn of elitist Stampede interests. In an interesting speculation, Foran

poses reasons why the two purposely keep their distance from each other:

the Stampede because it does not want to be perceived as being an agent of the

city, the city because it would prefer to see the Stampede take the brunt of

public criticism over issues that involve them both.

Tamara Palmer Seiler examines the elusive identity of the Canadian cow￾boy. She locates him on a grid of influences characterized by values inherent

in Canada’s east-west nation-building processes, as opposed to those implicit

in a continental north-south dynamic dominated by the United States. The

Canadian cowboy necessarily emerges as a contradictory figure amenable to

use and manipulation. In the Stampede he is at once an ideal marketing tool,

a compatible ideological icon, and a personal embodiment of maverick Cal￾gary and Alberta, while at the same time symbolizing that tantalizing “other”

dimension that Canadians employ to distance themselves from Americans.

As its title suggests, Glen Mikkelsen’s article takes the reader behind the

chutes into the world of rodeo. He discusses the events and their rules and

evokes the mystique of a sport that for all its excitement and danger is little

understood by most spectators at the Calgary Stampede. Mikkelsen also

probes rodeo at deeper levels. Elements of festival are captured in his discus￾sion of rodeo clowns and the public tolerance of their socially unacceptable

verbal exchanges. Mikkelsen’s discussion of animal abuse issues underscores

his major argument on the challenges facing rodeo. He speculates on how a

ICON, BRAND, MYTH: THE CALGARY STAMPEDE XIII

sport viewed as anachronistic by many, whose rules are difficult to follow and

whose human performers have little presence outside the arena, can continue

to command its premier position at the Calgary Stampede.

Aritha van Herk explores the world of chuckwagon racing, an event pio￾neered by and most identifiable with the Calgary Stampede. She describes

the event’s origins, rules, development, and controversial image. She views

chuckwagon racing as an activity firmly tied to a sense of place, with a close￾knit community of participants and a unique iconic ethos. She also sees its

development as local and accidental and “almost shyly naive.” To van Herk,

chuckwagon racing is a metaphor for hope, one that anticipates the peace

that follows danger. It also touches the essence of a past era, possibly more

than anything else the Stampede has to offer.

In his discussion of public art and monuments in Calgary, Frits Pannekoek

argues that the best artistic statements about the Stampede are confined to

the Stampede grounds, the rural hinterland, and the airport. Elsewhere,

Stampede images are most visible in gaudy commercial signage. Pannekoek

concludes that to Calgary’s guardians of culture, the Stampede embodies a

specific myth contrived for commercial purposes. While public art elsewhere

in the city embodies historical and socio-cultural themes, emerging issues,

and more refined myths, it has little to do with the Stampede and its ram￾bunctious version of the city’s “official” past.

Brian Rusted explores the controversial topic of western art and its margin￾alization by contemporary art institutions. He sees its robust survival as fitting

evidence of a legitimacy that belongs outside more formal prescriptions. He

discusses the Stampede’s contribution to western art through several historic

phases and manifestations, including the highly popular Stampede Western

Art Show. Yet the results have not been entirely positive. Rusted points out that

the Stampede’s current efforts to promote itself through spectator-oriented

visual representations have resulted in a popularized view of the West and a

virtual abandonment of its relationship to art and visual culture.

In their “reading” of selected Stampede posters, Robert M. Seiler and

Tamara Palmer Seiler show how visual texts can be sites of meaning. They see

the Stampede posters as emphasizing both nostalgia for the past and a belief in

progress and technology. The cowboy is incorporated into both these contra￾dictory themes and thus emerges as an ambiguous figure. Within this context

the authors suggest that the Stampede posters are much more open texts than

might be imagined, and that the various images of the cowboy are central to

the complex struggle over the meaning of western Canadian experience.

XIV INTRODUCTION

The closing article deals with Stampede as seen through its own eyes. Stam￾pede Chief Executive Officer Vern Kimball offers some of his thoughts on

where the Stampede has been and where it is going. Kimball acknowledges

the past in a tribute to Guy Weadick. He also outlines the Stampede’s plans

for the future within parameters defined by Calgary’s changing demographic

and the challenges of the twenty-first century. Kimball links the Stampede’s

future to its success in developing a permanent physical presence, universally

amenable and supportive of a vibrant urban-built form. More significantly,

Kimball sees the Stampede as an ideal vehicle through which respect for a

locally-grounded tradition can be integrated with the active promotion of

the values it embodies. Specifically, these include western hospitality, com￾mitment to community, pride of place, and integrity.

The Calgary Stampede is anything but bland. Some see it as a “ten-day

party,” a Disneyesque sham, and a commercial rip-off. Others hail it as “the

greatest outdoor show on earth,” a destination event, and a world-class fes￾tival rivalling Mardi Gras, Carnivale, or Oktoberfest. Could it be that all

perspectives contain valid elements? It is its capacity to conjure up a wide

spectrum of emotions; to symbolize the good, the bad, and the crass; to be

anything one wants it to be that in part explains the Stampede’s durabil￾ity and, paradoxically, its popular appeal and denigration. The editor and

authors hope this volume will contribute to further discourse about the

nature of Calgary’s controversial icon.

1

CHAPTER 1

The Stampede in Historical Context

Max Foran

A view of Stampede Park from Scotsman’s Hill, ca. 1908.