In the early days, a man was known for the hat he wore. When a man took his hat off 50 years ago, ranchers or outdoorsmen especially would be tanned a dark oak color except where the hat brim sat, then there would be a sharp contrast as the head, which was usually bald was snow white, never seeing the sun.

Doing some research to answer a recent question from a reader, we came across the Internet Archive site. It has some interesting postcards from the past.

Gas was dispensed by early service stations by pail. The gas in the pail was poured into a funnel covered by a chamois cloth or hide to catch dirt and water.

There is a type of “beauty” in our small town Cochrane museum. It is like sharing family albums. Rather than each family storing memories in attics or barns and losing them to time, they bring their collective history to us. Nothing captures Cochranes small town character, soul and past like our CHM. From purchasing a membership to supporting our local history, to volunteering, discovering your own history through research or waiting and sharing our local history, if you care about or want to learn more about our shared history, you need to become a member today. 

Before the railway, supplies came from Fort Benton, Montana. Fort Benton is on the Missouri River allowing steamboats to supply goods needed for the opening of the West.

At the turn of the century when Calgary was booming, its lumber had to come from somewhere. That somewhere happened to be Kananaskis Country. The logs were put in the Kananaskis River and floated down it to the river’s entry into the Bow where they went on down to Calgary.