A Cochrane duo with interest and ties to the Cochrane region’s Western heritage is looking for support to reconnect the area with its historic roots.
Eric Gunderson and Doug Bateman are working toward a road renaming project that would begin with identifying Highway 8 from Highway 22 into Calgary as the Clem Gardner Trail in recognition of Gardner who the proposal identifies as “a pioneer, early rodeo star, stockman and founding performer for the Calgary Stampede. He is a contemporary of the Big Four Stampede founders.”
Gunderson believes the Gardner name is a good first choice and would renew the recognition the historic figure once had in the Calgary area, pointing Scouts Canada discontinuing Camp Clem Gardner – now Camp Hope – along the Elbow River.
“I was a boy scout, 38 Glenmore Troop and as a kid, we had great leaders and they took us camping all the time and many times it was to Camp Clem Gardner. To me to see the name Camp Clem Gardner gone that bothered me a little bit,” Gunderson said, adding Calgary’s Clem Gardner Elementary school was renamed to Connect Charter School in 2014. “That’s two strokes there ... that road (Highway 8) more or less with a few engineering departures is the one Clem Gardner would trail stock to the Calgary Stampede back in the 20s and 30s.”
With the loss of the Gardner name on prominent landmarks, Bateman and Gunderson said it is an opportune time to find a way to memorialize it in the renaming of Highway 8.
“The bottom line is all of the construction going on for the Calgary Ring Road, Sarcee Trail and the intersection with Richmond Road sets the stage for saying what are they going to call Highway 8?” said Gardner. “I thought before this gets too far down the pipe and before the City of Calgary decides to name the whole thing Glenmore Trail, why can’t we take a bit of the lead from the Cochrane and Bragg Creek area and continue what we’re known for and that is cowboy heritage?”
With the connection Gardner had with the region through ranching, scouts and the Calgary Stampede, Gunderson believes strongly that the name Clem Gardner Trail is the perfect moniker to tie the whole region together.
“To me it’s an automatic,” he said. “It would be nice for the whole connection from Sarcee Trail all the way to Highway 8 to be called Clem Gardner Trail,” Gunderson said, adding he realizes there would need buy-in from the city. “It would be disappointing if the greater powers in the city and Ministry of Highways decided to call it a continuation of Glenmore Trail.”
The idea is the beginning of a greater idea that would see Bateman and Gunderson proposing to see more unnamed roads in the region take on a more historically relevant identity, such as Springbank Trail to bear the name of Sam Copithorne, an 1885 rancher whose family continues to have strong roots in the region.
“Copithornes are a long established family there. There are fourth and fifth generations there,” said Bateman, who farmed next to Copithorne’s land and has lived in Springbank since the late 1940s.
Before any progress is made, Bateman and Gunderson said they need to garner support from government and people and groups in the region. Ideally, they are hoping for a sponsoring agency and have reached out to the like of the Stockmen’s Memorial Foundation.
“The strength of the proposal is heritage. Personally, I would rather live on Bob Smith Trail than on Township Road 23,” said Gunderson.
To discuss the issue or register support, contact Gunderson at [email protected].
