Alberta’s ranching industry began with a federal decision in 1881 to grant large grazing leases. The first went to the Cochrane Ranche Company, led by Senator Matthew Cochrane, and it covered 109,000 acres, according to the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
The lease model opened the foothills
The leases gave eastern capital a way into the West and gave Ottawa a way to put cattle on land it did not expect to farm. The Cochrane Ranche operated from 1881 to 1888 on the west bank of Big Hill Creek, overlooking the Bow River.
The first site lost its cattle
The register records heavy early losses from harsh winters, poor fodder and weak herding. In 1883 the company moved its cattle to a new lease. The original site was reincorporated as the British American Ranch Company, proved unprofitable and was sold in 1888 as settlers pressed to break up the large leases. Two brickyards then operated on the land from 1898 to 1919.
The province protected the site in 1976
Alberta designated the ranch site a Provincial Historic Resource on March 26, 1976. The designated area covers about 137 acres of archaeological remains and landscape features, and the register says it represents large-scale cattle ranching in southern Alberta before 1896.
The first attempt failed and the model held
The Cochrane Ranche did not last as a business. The leasing system it opened did, and other large operations followed on similar terms. That is a pattern worth noting about how industry gets built in Alberta: the first venture can stumble while the structure it leaves behind carries the rest.
Correction. An earlier version gave figures for stocking rules, herd size, a lease term and a list of later ranches that the register does not support. They were removed, and the lease size was corrected to 109,000 acres.
Related reading from the series. Fort Calgary and how a Mounted Police post became the city of Calgary. Fort Macleod and the first NWMP outpost in southern Alberta.
