by Danny Elliott page 437 More Big Hill Country 2009
My name is Danny and I am the Senior Son so I am going to write our story. It’s “Danny”, not Dan or Daniel. It’s Danny because that is the name my Mom gave me.
We are Cochrane people. Corporal Allan Glen Elliott (everyone knows him as Curly Elliott so from now on it is Curly) and his young family arrived in Cochrane on August 30th, 1960. Curly had been transferred to Cochrane from Fort Vermilion, Alberta, to be the COP (Chief of Police) and we are rather proud of that.
We lived in the old and original “Police Detachment”. It was a small, square, white house built in the early 1900’s. It was a big move for us from Fort Vermilion. We had like a ‘toilet’, not an outhouse, and a bathtub, and an electric stove (not wood burning). The house was small. It held both the “Police Detachment” with a cell for the prisoners as well as our living quarters, but we were in the Big Town now.
Curly was the COP. There was also a young single Constable and Moses Ear. That was it for Police in the Cochrane area. I have to tell you about Moses Ear. Moses was a Stoney Indian from Morley. He was the last official “Indian Scout” that was RCMP employed. Jerry Potts was the first. Jerry worked with Colonel McLeod on the great March West of the NWMP in 1874. Moses was the last scout and he worked with Curly. He guided, interpreted, helped out and was a good friend to us. He should be recognized and remembered in a book like this.
Cochrane was a lot smaller when we moved to town, no houses up on the hill, no shopping center. Everyone knew everyone and word soon spread that there was a new COP in town. It just happened but here is the story. A lot of the local Ranchers used to come to town every Tuesday or Thursday or whenever it was to have cof- fee and conversation. One of them was coming in on the IA Highway when he saw the new COP. Curly had spotted a big coyote running full tilt across the field. He stopped the police car right on the road, cracked out his handy 30-06 rifle, leaned over a fence post and shot him flat. Didn’t even twitch. I asked Dad later how he did it and he said, “Well, about three feet high and about 6 feet in front of him”. The fact that he could never do it again in about a hundred tries is a story that won’t be told. Anyway, within about an hour the story was out. “There’s a new Mountie in Town and it is going to be Law and Order from now on ’cause that new RCMP guy can really shoot”.
We’re Anglicans. I was just born that way. I never had a choice, but I learned to like Catholics in Cochrane. You see our house was built about where the Fire Station is now. The Roman Catholic Church was right beside it. One of the first stories I heard when we moved in was that a truck lost its brakes coming down the big hill and ended up in our bathroom. I always thought it was highly considerate of those Catholics to build their new church there.
There are two other stories I should tell you. The old Fire Hall (now in Heritage Park) was right beside our house. It was not used too often and was a great “fort”. My brothers and I played in there all the time, catching birds and jumping on the old Fire Truck. One day we found a box of “Secret Buried Treasure” right under the truck. It was a case of dynamite that had turned into nitroglycerine. That was cool for us but a big deal for Curly.
We also had a “Bomb Shelter”. The Government thought the Russians might Nuke us in the 1960’s. And of course, Cochrane, being what they thought was a primary target in Canada, had a Bomb Shelter at the Police Detachment. It was a big culvert buried in our back yard, another totally cool fort.
One of the best parts of growing up in Cochrane was being able to walk to any and all of our activities. We knew everyone in town. Cubs and Scouts had a high priority in Cochrane. The campouts were great. I proudly became a Queen’s Scout. The swimming pool was our summer highlight. We were in Competitive Swimming and won a few medals. In winter we played Hockey. We competed with teams around Cochrane, which included Canmore, and leaving home at 6 a.m. became a regular routine.
Curly, or Corporal Elliott, organized the first School Patrol in the Cochrane schools when I was in Grade One. I remember being chosen to represent the Cochrane School Patrol in the Calgary Stampede Parade when I was in Grade Six. That was a long walk.
And now about us later on. Curly was in charge of the Cochrane Detachment from 1960 until 1967. While in charge of Highway Patrol in Calgary he initiated the Aircraft Speed Control. That led to Dad and I buying a Taylorcraft airplane, CF-DOC Elliott. His last posting was in charge of Security at the Calgary International Airport. He then went to work for the Royal Bank as a Private Investigator for fifteen years. He built a house on Mara Lake in British Columbia, caught a lot of fish and today lives happily in Calgary. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge in Cochrane, belongs to many other Lodges and was Provincial Grand Master of the Royal Order of Scotland. Mum, Helen Louise Atkins, now Elliott is a highly educated teacher, artist, mother and grandmother. She was an original member of the Cochrane Art Club. She retired as the principal of Acadia School in Calgary.
I, Danny Charles, was born in 1954 in Grande Prairie, Alberta. David Allan was also born there in 1956 and my other brother Robert Lee was born in 1959 in Fort Vermilion. Dave has worked for Shell throughout his career and is now with Shell International and lives in Holland. Lee is with Revenue Canada. He loves history and is involved in Medieval Reenactment. He organized the Canadians who fought at the 940th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in England on
October 14th, 2006. The Canadians were one of the twenty countries that participated in this historic event I now work as a Crown Prosecutor. I’ve prosecuted more people than anyone else in the history of Alberta I could tell you about the day the Judge drove his Cadillac through the Courthouse wall or the day I had nine prisoners escape all at once. Then there are all the fish we caught and all our hunting adventures. But those are stories not to be included here.
Very interesting.