The Amazing Alberta Time Travel Adventures of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray Read online

  early praise for

  The Amazing Alberta Time Travel Adventures

  of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray

  “Rob Lennard has put together a book that celebrates and educates kids of all ages about Alberta’s history.”

  Eric Brewer, NHL hockey player, Team Canada gold medalist, World Championships 2004 & Salt Lake City Olympics 2002

  “A fact-based fictional tour of Alberta’s history that is accessible and fun to read...Thanks to Rob Lennard, many students will learn the basics of our story in a friendly, entertaining way.”

  Mike Robinson, former CEO, Glenbow Museum

  “The book is intended for a young audience in grades 4 to 6, but it can be enjoyed by people of all ages. For a fanciful trip to events of long ago, I heartily recommend this book to all Albertans who have an interest in our history.”

  Marlene V. LaMontagne, Past President, Canadian Club of Calgary

  © 2005, 2012, Rob Lennard & H.T. Murgatroyd Publishing

  First published in 2005 under ISBN: 0 – 9737650 – 9 – 7

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system—without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by H.T. Murgatroyd Publishing

  Suite 2900, 350 – 7th Avenue SW

  Calgary, Alberta, t2p 3n9

  Phone: (403) 607•5299

  Fax: (403) 265•7335

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Website: www.historywrangler.com

  Second Paperback Edition

  May 2012

  17 16 15 14 13 12 — 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

  Library and Archives Cataloguing in Publication

  Lennard, Rob

  The amazing Alberta time travel adventures of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray /

  Rob Lennard; [Jamie Morris, illustrator]. — 2nd ed.

  Includes bibliographic references and index

  ISBN: 978–0–986883-81–1 (paper)

  ISBN: 978-1-987878-04-2 (EPUB)

  ISBN: 978-1-987878-05-9 (mobi)

  A CIP record has been applied for and will appear in future impressions of the book.

  This new edition is an updated and expanded version of the award winning book entitled The Amazing Time Travel Adventures of Family Day Ray, Roxy and Jasper

  first published in February 2005 and is being republished to celebrate the

  10oth anniversary of the Calgary Stampede!

  All archival images are reproduced by permission. See Permissions on page 103 – 105.

  TECHNICAL CREDITS:

  Structural & Substantive Editing: Patricia Anderson, Helping You Get Published, Vancouver, BC

  Copyediting: Tracy Blaine, The Write Support, Calgary, AB

  Illustrations: Jamie Morris, Calgary, AB

  Design & Production: Jeremy Drought, Last Impression Publishing Service, Calgary, AB

  E-book conversion: Human Powered Design

  Rob Lennard

  The History Wrangler

  H.T. Murgatroyd Publishing

  Calgary, Alberta

  A sincere and cordial invitation to attend this monster celebration

  and I assure you that it’s going to be a regular Hum Dinger!

  Guy Weadick, Founder of the Calgary Stampede, 1912

  © Glenbow Archives: na-628-1.

  I dedicate this book to two great men: my father Gordon Lennard, Retired Honorary Colonel of The King’s Own Calgary Regiment —a wonderful dad, who’s advice since I was a young boy has been, “Son, always remember to get your facts straight”— and my remarkable grandfather, Fred Murgatroyd, who lived each day of his life abiding by his favourite motto:

  “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm!”

  Author’s Message

  To celebrate the incredible 100th anniversary of the one and only Calgary Stampede, I couldn’t resist revising and republishing my award-winning book of historical fiction which I 0riginally wrote for Alberta’s centennial in 2005.

  The Stampede has great personal significance for me. I participated in four grandstand shows with the Young Canadians, played trumpet with the Stampede Show Band, and performed my History Wrangler Show on the Windows of the West stage two years in a row. I also undertook two days of book signing at the Indian Village in 2011, as a guest of the aboriginal illustrator Nathan Meguinis—also known as Traveling Rock—from the Tsuu T’ina Nation. Nathan’s illustrations feature on the cover and pages of my aboriginal-themed book, The Amazing Time-Travel Adventures of the Iron Crow Brothers and Bree Saint Marie, which was published in June of 2011. I am proud to help record the history of both Alberta and the Stampede—the greatest outdoor show on earth!

  A highlight for me occurred when I was a young boy and Queen Elizabeth II, currently celebrating her 60th anniversary on the throne, opened the Calgary Stampede. Her Majesty then watched me and the rest of the Young Canadians perform in the grandstand show and, afterward, joined us on stage for a visit.

  I sincerely hope you enjoy The Amazing Alberta Time-Travel Adventures of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray. I have woven more than 300 historical facts into the tale and am confident that your knowledge of Alberta history —particularly that of the first amazing Stampede back in 1912—will be greatly enhanced.

  Best wishes and a big yee-haw!

  Rob Lennard/The History Wrangler

  Calgary, Alberta

  March 2012

  Acknowledgements

  On behalf of all Canadians and above all, I would like to thank Hugh Dempsey, whom I refer to as “Alberta’s Mr. History,” for writing exceptional books and articles on Alberta history.

  My thanks to Aimee Benoit, the archivist at the Calgary Stampede; she was most helpful in both providing historical information and sourcing excellent photographs of the first Stampede. I am also grateful to the Historical Society of Alberta and, in particular, Debbie Goodine, who has been wonderfully supportive of this book and my other historically-based research projects.

  I also wish to acknowledge the contributions of Patricia Anderson, PhD, a literary consultant and book editor extraordinaire at Helping You Get Published, for substantive editing; Tracy Blaine at The Write Support for her copyediting services; and Jeremy Drought of Last Impression Publishing Service, who put it all together into the book that you now have in your hands. Special thanks to Jamie Morris, the incredible illustrator who created the cover of the book, and Simon Rose, my good friend and bestselling children’s author.

  Finally, I owe thanks to several others for their assistance and encourage-ment: Gilbert Plaw, my former high school English teacher; Bonnie Gray for her photography; Andrea Lennard and Dean Lauderdale for standing in as Roxy and Ray; and then in no particular order: Brian Brennan; Eric Brewer; the folks at Fort Calgary; Kathy Knowles; Marlene LaMontagne; Chris Leeson; Nina Lester; Brian Manko; David Reynolds; Mike Robinson; Sheri Standed; Michele Tyrrell; William Wynne; and my wonderful mother, Beth Lennard.

  My apologies if I overlooked others whose names should have been included in these acknowledgements. Such oversights, along with any other errors or omissions, are mine alone.r />
  Prologue

  On a bone-chilling, blustery February night, fraternal twins made their way into the world despite many odds. The frigid –42 degree weather and 90 centimetres of fresh fallen snow made the streets impossible to drive on, impeding their parents’ ability to access the hospital.

  Fortunately, the twins’ father was Doug Drumheller, staff sergeant of the Drumheller RCMP detachment. Doug used his rank to get Constable Charlie Canuk out of bed to pick up his pregnant, overdue wife, Michele, on the RCMP high-powered snowmobile. They arrived at the Drumheller Regional Hospital just in the nick of time, and the first twin was born less than five minutes later.

  As luck would have it, both twins came into the world shortly after midnight on Alberta’s Family Day holiday. By noon, the roads had reopened and the Drumheller family received a surprise visit from a friendly representative of the premier’s office in Edmonton. Several television and newspaper reporters accompanied him.

  The premier’s office was eager to identify and acknowledge the first Family Day baby of the year. Twins were better than they’d hoped for, and the representative was elated. He presented the parents with gifts that included a large Alberta flag, 20 pounds of the world-famous Longview beef jerky, and a commemorative plaque. Robert Palmer, an inquisitive reporter with RDTV in Red Deer, requested the names of the babies. Michele eagerly stated her daughter’s name, Roxy; then she hesitated and looked at her husband, because their son’s name was still undecided.

  Just then, a nurse dressed in a white uniform walked into the hospital room, carrying a tray of spaghetti and tomato sauce for Michele. As she entered, a bright ray of noonday sun appeared from behind the clouds and shone in her face. Momentarily blinded, she tripped over the reporter’s camera cords and landed face first in the spaghetti. Embarrassed and looking like a victim in the classic Killer Tomatoes movie, she shouted, “I’m not a klutz—it was the ray, the bright ray of sunshine!”

  With a twinkle in her eye, Michele turned to the reporter and the entire room and declared, “I’ve got it! Why don’t we name the boy Ray!” Her husband loved the name and, within 24 hours, the babies were featured on the front page of every major newspaper in the province.

  Ever since that day, 15 years ago, family and friends have referred to the twins as “Family Day Ray and Roxy.”

  Chapter 1

  Roxy Looks Back

  One Friday after school, 15-year-old Roxy was shooting hoops on the driveway in front of her family home. Basketball was one of her passions, and she was the high-scoring captain of the Drumheller Composite High School Dinos basketball team.

  Jasper, Roxy’s two-year-old retriever, sat at attention nearby, his head moving up and down as he followed the motion of the ball. The dog’s glossy fur shone red in the late spring sun.

  Roxy paused a moment to catch her breath and spotted her twin brother, Ray, down the road, walking toward home. She snapped her fingers at Jasper to get his attention and rolled the ball along the pavement toward him. When the ball got close enough, he stopped it with his right paw. As she always did when training the dog, she tossed him a treat. “Good boy!”

  Then she jogged toward the road, blonde pigtails bouncing against her shoulders. “You’re late,” she called to Ray as she approached him near the end of the driveway. “What were you doing at school so long?”

  “Exhibition match,” he replied. “We won every round.” He grinned from one of his Elvis-style sideburns to the other. Family Day Ray arm wrestled on the school team, and the sport meant as much to him as basketball did to Roxy. He also played centre on the Drumheller Dragons Junior A hockey team. As if that were not enough to keep him in prime shape, he was also a top-notch bull rider who had won the Alberta Junior Bull Riding Championships.

  “Where’s your rope?” he asked Roxy. “I thought you’d be out here practising.”

  She shook her head. “I got my homework done already and now I have the whole weekend to come up with some new stunts.”

  “Wild Roping Roxy,” as she was known when performing, was a trick roper. Every summer, she appeared at many of the rodeos in which her brother competed, including the Strathmore Rodeo, where she also ran with the bulls each night.

  “I thought you were planning to spend Saturday at the library, buried in some old books,” Ray said.

  If Roxy loved anything more than basketball and performing rope tricks, it was Alberta history. She had scored a 99.7 percent on her most recent provincial exam and won a prestigious Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for her thought-provoking essay on the importance of learning Alberta history. With all the reading she had done, she could recall stories of the past whenever she wanted.

  Ray’s mention of rope practice set her mind wandering to one of her biggest heroines, the trick roper Grace Maude Bensell, who had changed her name to Florence LaDue to hide from her father after she ran away from home at 15 to join a Wild West show. She’d learned her skills growing up with her grandparents on the Sioux reservation in Minnesota.

  While performing in Chicago, Florence met Guy Weadick, a flamboyant cowboy who later founded the Calgary Stampede. After a whirlwind five-week courtship, they got married in Memphis, Tennessee and, as “the Stampede Riders,” performed together in shows. In March 1912, Guy spent seven months creating the very first Calgary Stampede, which took place in September 1912. Florence competed in it and won the title of World Champion Lady Fancy Roper.

  Such a romantic story, Roxy always thought.

  Her other favourite roper was her own flaming red-haired great-great-grandmother, Leah Anderson, who used the stage name Leah LaSue. “Note that it’s pronounced lasso,” Roxy would always point out.

  Leah and Florence were close friends. Leah was only 14 years old when the two first met. Florence was 10 years older and Leah looked up to her like the big sister she’d never had. Leah even asked her for permission to use a stage name that rhymed with her own; Florence was flattered and immediately agreed. But Roxy was not surprised to read that friendship took a backseat when the two cowgirls each held a rope in their hands and went after cold hard cash, prize belt buckles, and titles. Both fierce competitors, they were almost equal in skill with a rope, and Leah finished a close second to Florence at a rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, held a week before the first Calgary Stampede.

  The remarkable Florence LaDue.

  © Glenbow Archives: na-628-4.

  “They were so awesome,” Roxy said under her breath.

  Ray’s hand waving in front of her face brought her back to the present. “Earth to Roxy—the library, remember?”

  “Oh, I went to the library yesterday. I wanted to find out more about Leah LaSue.”

  “Our great-great-whatever? Let me guess—you now know her whole life story and you’re not going to let me go inside until you tell me.”

  “Well, yeah...”

  By this time, the twins had reached the big front porch. Ray sprawled in a wicker chair, long legs extended, and called Jasper to come and lie beside him. Roxy hoisted herself onto the porch railing facing them. Pretending impatience, Ray ran a hand through his short black hair and made a show of rolling his eyes.

  “Oh, cut it out,” Roxy said. “You know you like my true stories of the past—and Leah LaSue is your ancestor too.”

  “Okay,” Ray said, “I give up. Even Jasper wants to hear the story.” Though he was lying down, the dog’s head was raised and his brown eyes were trained on Roxy.

  “Actually, it’s a sad story,” she began. “Leah never even got to compete in the first Stampede. On the day of the Lady Fancy Roper World Championship, a horse accident crushed her right hand and she had to drop out of the competition. The hand never fully healed and she was unable to twirl a rope ever again.”

  Roxy paused for dramatic effect. “To add insult to injury,” she continued, “Leah’s heart was also crushed the very next day. The
love of her life, the tall, dark, and handsome Texan cowboy Dallas “Big Boy” McCoy, one of the world’s finest bronc riders and trick ropers, dumped her like a heavy black iron stove falling from the back of a chuckwagon.”

  Ray laughed. “Wait a minute—iron stove falling from a chuckwagon? Where’d you get that from?”

  “I guess I read it somewhere,” Roxy admitted. “Anyhow, Leah later married Neville Anderson, a night auditor at the Alberta Hotel in downtown Calgary. He was diagnosed with severe asthma six months after the wedding, and they had to sell their 30-acre ranch near DeWinton, along with Leah’s beloved white horse, Triumph. They ended up living in a small two-bedroom house in Calgary’s east end.”

  “Quite a story,” Ray said. “I bet Mom and Dad thought it was interesting when you told them.”

  Roxy had inherited her love of history from her parents and always shared her latest discoveries with them. Her mother, Michele, was a high school history teacher. Born Michele Tyrrell, she was a distant relative of Joseph Tyrrell. He’d discovered dinosaur bones in the area back in 1884, and the Tyrrell Museum was named after him. The twins’ father, Doug, was an expert on the traditions of the RCMP. He also took pride in being the great-grandson of Sam Drumheller, for whom the town of Drumheller was named.

  Dad in his office with the twins.

  Ray looked thoughtful. “When you hear stories about the past, it kind of makes you wish—”

  A familiar chug-chug interrupted him. The twins’ mother was steering her 1929 blue Ford Model A convertible around the curve of the driveway. On her left shoulder, enjoying the breeze from the half-open driver’s window, perched her adorable pet Big Eyes; he was a partially blind, one-legged great horned owl—the Alberta provincial bird.