Stretching from the grassy ranchlands to the foot of the iconic Canadian Rockies, the diverse Municipal District of Bighorn has a lot of unheard history waiting to be told.
And a project designed to uncover those many untold historical accounts in an uncut manner has received a boost for its ongoing efforts.
The Oral History Project received funding for an additional year that was announced at the MD’s Heritage Resources Committee (HRC) meeting in July.
The Oral History Project is a first-person video documentation that began in 2011 through people sharing stories about the MD’s past and its residents, buildings, Stoney Nakoda First Nation neighbours and other events that have shaped its history.
The grant is for $16,000 that will go to June 30, 2017 and is from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation.
The HRC conducts and films the interviews and the hope is to have it complete by June 2017.
The process to find the interviewees has grown over the past few years, said Lynda Grischkat, HRC chair, adding the initiative began by making a list of the people they wanted to speak to for the project.
Twelve people have been interviewed since – those whose wealth of experience and knowledge about the MD’s diversity range from Rafter Six tales told by Stan Cowley, hanging on to buckin’ broncos with rodeo professional Doug Richards, and alpine mountain rescues as told by Peter Fuhrmann.
HRC continues to search for people to interview for the initiative and have given an open call to those interested in contributing to the Oral History Project.
“There is such a diverse history within the MD just because the demographics stretch from Harvie Heights to ranchlands to the early cowboys days,” said Grischkat.
“We want people to be able to have reference to go to and learn about our history.”
Grischkat said some of the shared stories from around the MD are even surprising to her.
One story told by Fuhrmann, who has lived in Harvie Heights since 1956, was that in those days a person could buy a lot outright in the hamlet for the “terribly expensive” price of $175, as he joked during the interview.
In another interview, Bert Dyck, a former municipal manager of Improvement District No. 8 and Canmore councillor and mayor, shares how the Municipal District of Bighorn got its unique name in the 1980s.
“There are so many interesting stories,” said Grischkat. “It is really about educating people and preserving our history and carrying it forward.”
The stories can be found on the MD of Bighorn’s YouTube page and on the MD’s website (mdbighorn.ca/oral-history-project). Interviews are in full versions and broken up into clips.
HRC is interested in adding more people to interview for the project. Those interested can contact the HRC through email at [email protected].
