The Story of the Cochrane Ranche: How a Failed Ranch Gave Cochrane Its Name

In the fall of 1881, about 6,800 head of cattle came up the trail from Montana to a brand-new ranch beside Big Hill Creek, just west of where Cochrane stands today.

Within two winters, most of them were gone.

This is the story of the Cochrane Ranche.

The corrals at the Cochrane Ranche Historic Site. Photo: davebloggs007 / Flickr, CC BY 2.0.

The Senator, the Superintendent and the Big Hill

The senator. Matthew Henry Cochrane was born in Compton, Lower Canada, in 1823. He made his money in the leather and shoe business, then put it into Hillhurst, his farm in Quebec's Eastern Townships, where his purebred Shorthorn cattle became known on both sides of the Atlantic. He was appointed to the Senate in 1872.

Senator Matthew Henry Cochrane, 1879. Photo: William James Topley / Library and Archives Canada (public domain).

The lease. In 1880 and 1881, Cochrane pressed Ottawa for a system of large, long-term grazing leases in the North-West Territories, with single leases of up to 100,000 acres. When the policy came in, the Cochrane Ranche Company, backed by a group of eastern investors, secured the first lease: a sweep of the Bow Valley west of Calgary that sources put at roughly 100,000 to 109,000 acres. More leases around it soon followed.

The superintendent. To run it, the company hired James Walker, who had joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1874 and retired as a superintendent. Decades later, in 1975, Calgary would name him its "Citizen of the Century."

The Big Hill. Walker chose a sheltered spot on the west bank of Big Hill Creek, where the creek valley opens into the Bow Valley, just west of the long ridge known as the Big Hill. Early maps label it Manachaban Hill, though sources differ on what that name means. In the ranch's day the whole operation went by the hill: cattle were contracted for delivery "to Big Hill," and the property was known as the lease on the Big Hill. The town that came later grew up along its southwest slope.

Two Winters on the Big Hill

Fall 1881. I.G. Baker and Company of Fort Benton, Montana, was hired to bring the herd north. To beat the snow, the drovers pushed the cattle 15 to 18 miles a day, with little time to graze. About 6,800 head reached the lease, worn thin from the trail.

Winter 1881–82. Hay had been put up only for the purebred stock. The range cattle were expected to fend for themselves. Winter came early and hard, and roughly 1,000 head died.

There's a story told about that first winter. Before the cattle came, the senator met "Kootenai" Brown, a long-time foothills resident, out on the range. Brown warned him about the winters and told him to put up hay. Cochrane didn't take the advice.

1882. Walker went back to Montana and bought thousands more head. After clashing with the owners, he resigned that year. He took the ranch's small sawmill as part of his settlement and moved it to Calgary.

October 1882. The second herd, 4,290 head, reached the ranch after another hard drive and an early snowstorm. When the trail boss asked to let the cattle rest first, Walker, under orders to get them onto the range, refused.

Winter 1882–83. The new team, bookkeeper Frank White and cattleman W.D. Kerfoot, faced a winter worse than the first. The owners ordered the cattle held on the snow-covered lease instead of letting them drift to open range. Losses topped 3,000 head.

Spring 1883. The commonly cited count is that about 4,000 head were left of some 12,000 that had passed through the ranch, counting calves born on the range and about 2,000 sold as beef to the Mounted Police and nearby reserves. One Parks Canada historian thinks even the loss figures may have been overstated. Either way, the owners had seen enough.

From Ranch to Railway Town

1883: the move south. The company moved its cattle to a new lease between the Belly and Waterton rivers. There, with hay put up for winter and shelters built, the Cochrane Ranche went on to succeed.

1884: the sheep years. Back on the Bow, the owners reorganized the original lease as the British American Ranche Company. They ran horses there first, then brought in about 8,000 sheep in 1884, with Kerfoot in charge.

1885: a townsite. Meanwhile, the Canadian Pacific Railway had built its main line up the Bow Valley, right through the lease. In 1885 a townsite was granted to the railway below the Big Hill, and the CPR named it Cochrane in honour of the senator.

For years, the ranch still surrounded the little townsite, and few people lived there. A rival settlement, Mitford, sprang up a few miles to the west. When Mitford faded in the 1890s, Cochrane became the centre for the farms around it.

1887–88: the end of the lease. Settlers were pressing to open the big leases to homesteads. In 1887 the ranch was split along the Bow River, with the horses moved to the south side. In 1888 about 7,000 sheep and 41,000 acres of the old lease were put up for sale, and much of the land north of the river went to new settlers.

1903 and after. The hamlet of Cochrane became a village in 1903. Around the turn of the century, brickyards operated on the old ranch site itself, and before the First World War the village also had a stone quarry and a sawmill. Cochrane became a town in 1971.

Men of Vision, on the bluff above the historic site. Photo: davebloggs007 / Flickr, CC BY 2.0.

The Cochrane Ranche Today

The old headquarters is now the Cochrane Ranche Historic Site, on Highway 1A just east of Highway 22. The province designated it a historic site in the 1970s. The provincial register dates the designation to March 1976, and the public announcement followed in October 1977.

Archaeologists have excavated the manager's house and the cowboys' bunkhouse, and their footprints are laid out where they stood. A self-guided walking trail follows Big Hill Creek past a reconstructed 1880s-style corral with branding gates.

Up on the bluff stands Men of Vision, a bronze cowboy on horseback by local sculptor Malcolm "Mac" MacKenzie. It was cast in England and unveiled in 1979, and it looks out over the valley where the ranch began.

Walk up to the statue on a clear day and you can see the whole story at once: the creek valley Walker picked, the Bow River beyond it, and the town spreading along the foot of the Big Hill. The ranch lasted only seven years on the Bow. The name it left behind is on every sign into town, and the western character it started is still part of what makes Cochrane feel like home.

If you're new to Cochrane or thinking about a move here, our Cochrane Relocation Guide and Neighbourhood Guide are good next reads.

Wayne & Sean Burton, REMAX West Real Estate

Sources

1. Alberta Register of Historic Places, "Cochrane Ranche" (Statement of Significance). https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=1&ObjectID=4665-0153

2. Alberta Register of Historic Places, heritage survey file HS 73348, "Cochrane Ranch Co. Ltd." (timeline and October 1977 designation release). https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=2&ObjectID=HS+73348

3. Roderick J. Heitzmann, The Cochrane Ranche Site, Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper No. 16 (Alberta Culture, 1980), as excerpted by Library and Archives Canada. https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/pasttopresent/rural_life/cochrane_ranche_history.html

4. William Naftel, "The Cochrane Ranch," Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 16 (Parks Canada). http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/16/chs16-4h.htm and http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/16/chs16-4i.htm

5. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "Cochrane, Matthew Henry." https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cochrane_matthew_henry_13E.html

6. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "Walker, James." https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/walker_james_16E.html

7. The Canadian Encyclopedia: "Cochrane Ranche," "Cochrane (Alta)," "Matthew Henry Cochrane" and "James Walker." https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cochrane-ranche

8. Town of Cochrane, "History of Cochrane," "Cochrane Ranche Historic Site" and "Men of Vision Statue." https://www.cochrane.ca/community-culture/history-cochrane

9. Cochrane Historical & Archival Preservation Society (CHAPS), "Place Names of Big Hill Country," "Cochrane" and "Village of Cochrane 1903." https://chapscochrane.com/place-names-complete-listing/

10. Donald Edward Brown, A History of the Cochrane Area (MA thesis, University of Alberta, 1951). https://archive.org/details/historyofcochran00dona

11. Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association, From Start to Finish: An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta. https://www.cattlefeeders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/From-Start-to-Finish-Cattle-Feeding-History.pdf

12. Cochrane Tourism, "Cochrane Ranche Walking Trail." https://cochranetourism.ca/blog/scavenger-hunt-at-cochrane-ranche/

13. Cochrane Eagle, "Men of Vision celebrating 35th." https://www.cochraneeagle.ca/local-news/men-of-vision-celebrating-35th-1448524

Photo credits: Corrals and Men of Vision photos by davebloggs007 on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Portrait of Senator Cochrane by William James Topley, 1879, Library and Archives Canada, public domain.