Calgary's Elbow River Trail: The Summer of ‘71
I love getting emails from readers – especially those with ideas for a blog. Recently, Donna Parks (formerly Tebbs) wrote to tell me that this summer is the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Elbow River Trail. Turns out Parks was one of the students who helped build the trail as a summer job and she can prove that given she still has her a scrapbook from Summer of ’71.
She thought the “Everyday Tourist” might be interested in doing a blog. I quickly jumped on the idea.
Backstory: In the summer of 1971, University of Calgary students Brent McCorquodale and Rob McKenzie were successful in applying for a federal government’s “Opportunities For Youth” (OFY) grant to create a 25-mile tail along the Elbow River from the Glenmore Reservoir to the Calgary Zoo. (FYI: We were still using miles not kilometers in the ‘70s. It would be about 42-kilometers today.)
All newspaper clippings and photos are from Parks’ scrapbook.
Make Work Project
The grant program wasn’t without controversy, many saw it as a federal government giveaway to its favourite groups, while others saw it as way to keep youth employed and out of trouble. (Some things never change.)
The OFY Grant program’s criteria regarding who got grants and for what projects was vague and contradictory.
Calgary was granted $319,000 from the total $24.7M “Opportunities For Youth” program which funded 2,300 projects across Canada. In Calgary, the Elbow Trail project was just one of several projects.
included: a group of students researching the feasibility of a media centre at the University of Calgary, another group working with the Historical Calgary Study Group to document Calgary’s historic architecture.
Rod Ball remembers getting the City on board after the federal government approved their project required an impassioned plea and support from then Alderman Dr. Lou Goodwin, who doubled as the University of Calgary’s Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education (now Kinesiology) at the time and knew many of the students. Rod Ball, Brent McCorquodale and other students attended the City Hall session to lend their support and remember well the City begrudgingly approved a $26,000 grant for materials, tools and other support as the $46,500 OFY grant monies could only be used for salaries.
Forty University of Calgary students, later joined by 10 high school students, were hired in the summer of ’71 to build the Elbow River Trail.
Note: If any trail workers are interested in getting together this summer for a low-key reunion, please contact Donna Parks at dmparks52@gmail.com.
Building The Trail
Plans called for the trail to connect landmarks like Fort Calgary, Stampede Park, Union Cemetery, Reader Rock Garden, Stanley Park, Sandy Beach and Heritage Park. It included creating eight miles of new shale trails that integrated with existing rough dirt paths (which needed to be upgraded) to create the 24-mile Elbow River Trail. Trails were to be four feet wide and be available to hikers and cyclists in the summer and cross-country skiers in the winter.
The students not only built the trail, but they researched the history of various sites along the trail for future information signage designed to help Calgarians better understand their city’s history.
In August of 1971 Alderman Roy Farran (back in the ‘70s, Councillors were all called Alderman regardless of gender) complained the project was a “prime example of students using federal funds to do nothing and he didn’t like their four-day week.”
In reality, they had already built several miles of the trail and were working 9 and 10 hour days, so they could have a four-day work week. A progress report by the students replied “we can therefore assume it was just another politician jumping on the bandwagon before looking where he was jumping.”
Hmmmmm..some things never change.
Though students completed the project a week early, the City insisted they had to work the last week to get paid, so they planned a grand opening.
Debbie (Haight) Norrie was charged with writing to then Lt. Gov. Grant MacEwan to ask if he would officially open the trail and he responded enthusiastically to the invitation. Other crew members contacted media and fulfilled other tasks to stretch out the last week before the opening.
Fun Stories (collected by Donna Parks)
The project attracted mostly self-directed, goal-oriented, Physical Education/Kinesiology students who all knew the value of hard work, albeit few had any previous experience using a shovel and other manual labour tools. But everyone remembered the trail building experience as SO MUCH FUN!
Some of the original Rod and Rick stairs still exist.
Rod Ball and Rick Million comprised the “stair” crew and every railway-tie staircase (some can still be found in places along the south Glenmore Park trail) was constructed by them. Every week a truck would drop off forty 8X8 railway ties and long steel spikes near where Glenmore Landing now stands.
Rod and Rick would have to bucksaw the ties (no power tools supplied) put them on their shoulders and carry them and the spikes along the Reservoir through the trees to where the stairs were to be constructed.
Rod remembers “the ground was rife with tree roots as it is today and had to be hand dug. We were often interrupted by horse riders from the nearby boarding ranch, but otherwise we worked in seclusion with one hand on a tool and the other free to swat the mosquitos that seemed to be able to penetrate the sweat and grime to find their mark. Through all those days and weeks of hard labor, we all enjoyed the rigors of hard work, loved being unsupervised and were rewarded each day by the results of our work.”
Rod and Donna remember working along Sifton Blvd above the Elbow River when a flatbed truck arrived at what they would discover was Eric Harvie Jr.’s house. Everyone wondered what was in the huge crate. Eventually it was revealed it was a fire orange Lamborghini, direct from Italy via the Suez Canal. Rod said the car was bought for the then princely sum of $25,000.
One hot day while one crew was working near the west end of what is now Bayview, they were approached by the elderly Dr. L.S. MacKid, owner of a secluded house located on a property overlooking the Reservoir. He invited all the sweaty, dirty workers up from the path to his garden for lemonade, a tour of his house and some local history.
Everyone listened as he told them he was one of the landowners whose property had been expropriated by the City for the Reservoir and his father, Dr. H.G. MacKid had been the first CPR physician, a role that he fulfilled until his death.
Working on the pathway was also a time-travelling experience! While digging behind the Rockyview Hospital, some students cleared away soil to reveal the remains of a small buried encampment, complete with firepit stones, some utensils and bottles. Work was temporarily halted until the University of Calgary Archeology Department could make a determination as to its value. The crew was told the cliff was used as a small buffalo jump, which wasn’t surprising due to the proximity to the Tssut’ina lands. Ultimately, the site was deemed interesting, but not worth further study, so any treasures they found they could keep.
Life on the trail was seldom boring in those pre-device, pre-headphone days. Always inventive, and with only each other for amusement, bad and good jokes were frequently exchanged, games of “20 Questions” and “Name that Tune” were played endlessly. When it got too hot, we didn’t hesitate to jump into the reservoir to cool off.
Two members of one crew, Maureen Harper and Terry (Voth) Higgins both owned grey 1956 Austin sedans. Both women were always good naturedly boasting about the superiority of their respective vehicles, so one day the gauntlet (i.e. a shovel) was thrown down and a showdown planned for the next day. A Le Mans start was in order. Terry donned her best race car driver apparel, as did Maureen and co-drivers.
All four took off running to the cars from the big H of Heritage Park, started them and raced to the finish line (where Glenmore Landing now stands). No stopwatch was necessary to declare the winner as Maureen’s car had refused to start. No loss of face was sported for coming in last, however, as 1st place got a bottle of wine – the same as 2nd place.
Today
It is amazing how much Calgary’s pathway system has evolved over the past 50 years. Today, Calgary boasts one of the most extensive urban pathways in the world - over 1,000 km of multi-use pathways. I find it ironic that Calgary a city that is so car-centric, built a 145-km Rotary/Mattamy Greenway encircling the city for walkers and cyclists long before a ring road for cars will be completed.
In fact, parks and pathways are as much part of Calgary’s culture as cars are. The City’s motto could easily be: “The City of Parks and Pathways!” And it is projects like the Elbow River Trail that we have to thank for that.
Last Word
I was 17 years old in 1971 and had just graduated high school. I am sure Hamilton had OYF projects, but I was too busy digging ditches for Union Gas company to know.
Happy Summer Everyone!
If you like this blog, you will like these links:
Things To Do In Calgary: Parks, Pathways & Playgrounds
Calgary better than Vancouver for cycling?
Calgary’s SoBow Trail: One Of The Best River Banks In North America