The History of the Calgary Stampede

Not a lot of people know the true story about how the Stampede started so I thought I'd better get it online.

The city councilors were meeting and one of the more esteemed brought up an issue. "Now that summer is here traffic is moving really well and drivers are having hardly any problems. We have to do something about that!!"

They kicked ideas around and in just a few hours the Stampede was born, and it worked!

I'm not trying to say it's entirely negative. On a bicycle ride to work one Stampede morning I did wind up with a few cans of free beer left behind by someone with less than razor sharp, wide awake attention to detail, who also might have had a diminished ability to count.

I enjoyed one woman's comment about the parade. "Pet owners have to clean up after their pets. Why can't the cowboys carry a garbage bag and a shovel?"

John Wayne isn't around anymore so we can't write that equipment into his roles, but it is time that we do get a new age, clean city conscious cowboy role model for the movies.

During the Stampede a lot of people get to the office in boots, jeans, a western shirt and a ten gallon hat. It's usually fun to ask: "Just rode into town did you?" Even if it was on the city transit, they could still say yes. You can have fun with just about anything, even traffic problems.