PINCHER CREEK NEWS

In celebration of the grand opening of PEAKS Collegiate Campus, a partnership between Livingstone Range School Division and Lethbridge Polytechnic, nearly 400 high school students explored the Mobile Field Study Lab as it toured southwestern Alberta on Sept. 23. The lab provides students with a clear pathway into post-secondary education and careers in Environmental Science, […]

In 1926, Henry John Ellwood was a telephone linesman in Pincher Creek. My grandfather was born in Comberton, a small rural village in South Cambridgeshire, England. The winter of 1898 was harsh, and his aunt struggled to reach Cambridge and register his birth.  When she went to register his birth, she got the date wrong; […]

The Chief Mountain port of entry closes for the season on Monday at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. It will reopen next spring. Due to its high elevation and harsh winters, Chief Mountain only operates from May to September. Travellers can use the Carway port of entry, Del Bonita port of entry or Coutts port of entry as an alternative […]

Canyon Church Camp has announced a benefit concert to help fund the rebuilding of its camp facility in Waterton Lakes National Park. Canyon Church Camp lost over half its buildings in the 2017 Kenow Wildfire, and construction started last month to replace them. Country musician George Canyon is performing a solo acoustic concert for the fundraiser, […]

A group of Lundbreck residents say they have been frustrated in their attempt to have the Municipal District of Pincher Creek apply on their behalf for a sign asking truckers to avoid using engine retarder brakes when driving down a hill at the entrance to the hamlet. Larry Whan, representing 25 people, says he has […]

Standing on the ridgetop overlooking my family’s Burke Creek Ranch, I feel the weight of history beneath my feet. This land, with its fescue grass and windswept limber pines, has been in my family for four generations. My great-grandfather came west after the railway was completed, seeking opportunity. With little ranching experience, he saw year-round […]

Registered midwives were welcomed with enthusiasm as they arrived with their clients to assist with the first midwife-attended delivery at Pincher Creek Health Centre. On June 7, baby girl Chloe Ray was born to third-time parents Shae-Lynn Wolosuk and Jesse Wocknitz, with the support of registered midwives Terri Demers and Eve Verdon, and licensed practical […]

On June 20, the Piikani Child and Family Services (CFS) staff completed a 117-kilometre international border cross relay to Chief Mountain Relay. The run started at the Piikani CFS office on Piikani Nation and ended at Blackfeet Junction, Montana. Staff also left offerings and prayers on the way for Piikani children, youth, and families dealing with grief, losses and illnesses. The relay was completed in eight hours and 36 minutes.

A prominent Pincher Creek family, along with physicians from a local clinic, have established a pair of University of Lethbridge awards that invest in the next generation of students and the health and well-being of their community. Drs. Beverly (BSc ’03) and Tracy Burton (BSc ’03), both physicians practising in Pincher Creek, together with their […]

As a result of the biggest changes to happen in Alberta high-school football in 25 years, the Willow Creek Cobras of Claresholm are looking to expand the reach of the team by inviting eligible high-school students from schools in the region to play football at Willow Creek Composite High School in 2024. Students from Pincher […]

The Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association’s Day on the Creek program, which offers a unique outdoor learning experience for hundreds of students from the Pincher Creek area, has been nominated for an award that recognizes environmental excellence. The Alberta Emerald Foundation announced Friday the nominees for the 33rd annual Emerald Awards, and the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association’s […]

In this week’s Living History column, we reflect back on a couple of pioneer families connected with the agricultural and railway industries from southwestern Alberta. William Jacob and Minnie (Faulk) Bressner Coming to Canada and the Cowley area in the early 1900s, the Bressners took up a homestead in the Porcupine Hills. Their land was […]

Sgt. Vince Bacon, the newly appointed detachment commander of Piikani Nation RCMP, and his team are committed to improving relationships between the Piikani First Nations community and the police officers serving them. “Our history has left generational scars on the lives of many. I know that we are just at the beginning of a long […]

Livingstone Range School Division’s board continues to explore the option of a four-day school week.

For many readers with an interest in our local history or for those who know our changeable winter weather, the thought of the traditional use of snowshoes during the holiday season is not one which readily comes to mind. Yet there has been a pioneer use, particularly during the annual festivities, for these means of […]

Now that December has arrived and most of us are preparing for Christmas, it would be interesting to reflect back on some of those pioneer Christmas celebrations from the early days from the Pincher Creek District. This week, we look back at those pioneer Christmas celebrations from 1908 and 1909. New Year’s Day dinner a […]

The Econo Lodge Inn and Suites in Pincher Creek has won a national award from Choice Hotels Canada. Choice Hotels Canada has announced its annual Awards for Property Excellence, and the local hotel has been named Best New Entry: Economy. “This exciting hotel has achieved high levels of guest satisfaction since coming online,” said Brian […]

Partners Evolve Power (Evolve) and TransAlta Corporation (TransAlta) hosted a site tour at their Tent Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project (TM-PHES) in the Crowsnest Pass on Oct. 17. Evolve and TransAlta jointly own the TM-PHES in a 50-50 partnership. In attendance for the tour were Alberta Affordability and Utilities minister Nathan Neudorf, Indigenous Relations […]

This week’s Living History article highlights new historical research on some of the early pioneers from the Olin Creek District adjacent to the Porcupine Hills. Earlier versions of these stories appeared in our local history book for the Pincher Creek area, Prairie Grass to Mountain Pass, but these new versions capture this new knowledge. Happy […]

Recent historical research has unearthed additional chronicles from a couple of the early pioneer families who settled in the Olin Creek District within the southwestern reaches of the Porcupine Hills. Research sources include Find A Grave, the homestead records held by the Provincial Archives of Alberta as accessed via ancestry.com and the old time recollections […]

One of the arrests occurred in the village of Champion, Alta. last Sunday while a shelter-in-place advisory was in effect

The Chief Mountain port of entry is closing for the season on Sept. 30, at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST). It will reopen in the spring of 2024. Due to the harsh winters and its high elevation, Chief Mountain only operates from May to September. Travellers can use either the Carway port of entry or the Coutts […]

A much forgotten figure from the early pages of local history has been that of Dr. George Malcolmson, who made significant contributions to medical practices in both Pincher Creek and up in the Crowsnest Pass. Let’s have a look at that frontier medical history. Established practice in Old Galt Hospital in Lethbridge Little is known […]

When hundreds of public health and safety officials gather in Edmonton this week for the Safety in Our Cities conference, they will discuss what role legal pressure can play in changing addicted people’s behaviour. As the conferees will learn, the international evidence is clear: compassionate intervention can work. An excellent example comes from U.S. states […]

One of the distinguished heritage buildings housed at the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village is that of the Kootenai Outpost of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP). Constructed and utilized to assist in law enforcement functions in one of the remote rural areas so common across the Canadian Prairies prior to the First World War, this […]

Crowsnest Pass RCMP were dispatched Wednesday morning, at roughly 5:15 a.m., to a complaint of a break-and-enter in progress at a Lundbreck business. During the Sept. 13 break and enter, the owner attended the business, and an altercation took place in which a suspect brandished a weapon. The owner received minor injuries as a result […]

Chronicled here are three pioneer families with early Pincher Creek business connections. Recent research has unearthed some of their histories. Bookkeeper with the Hudson’s Bay Company Frederick J. Dupuy was a bookkeeper with the local Hudson’s Bay Company store here in Pincher Creek when it was located on the south side of Main Street, on […]

This week, we look back at the life and times of pioneer businessman Charles William Hart. He was related to I. L. (Ben) Montgomery, who homesteaded south of Pincher Creek and later operated the first Ford dealership here in town. Business opportunities Hart was born in the American state of Indiana, and was raised in […]

The Harambee Grandmas invite you to their sixth annual fabric and yarn sale on Friday, Oct. 20 and Saturday, Oct. 21. The fabric and yarn sale takes place in Lethbridge, at McKillop United Church, 2329 15th Ave. S, from 4-7 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Oct. 21. Cash, debit, and credit […]

The Chipman Creek School District Number 864, situated just east of the ranching settlement of Pincher Creek, had a pioneer history that bespeaks of the western Canadian frontier. That history tells of the local struggles to educate the district’s students. School establishment and early ratepayers The school district was established in June 1903. The school […]