Chinook Country 2020 AGM
On June 16, 2020, CCHS held its Annual General Meeting via Zoom. This meeting had originally been scheduled for March 24. A review of the past year’s activities was undertaken as well as the actions taken and plans changed since Covid-19 made its appearance on the scene. Our plans for the next year were outlined with caveats due to the current restrictions on large gatherings. The attendees were treated to a showing of the five-minute long pilot video that was developed to illustrate the Digital Walking Tour Initiative we will work on through next year.
Financials for the year ended December 31, 2019 were reviewed and the members were presented with the budget for 2020, which was unanimously approved. The members were informed about the effects that reduced funding will have on the organization’s ability to carry on its activities but that it will live within its means under the budget presented.
If you have any questions, please email us at info@chinookhistory.ca.
The election of Directors for the year were held and the following individuals constitute the Board of CCHS for the next year:
Executive
Jackie Kleiner, President
Walt DeBoni, Past–President
Megan Ballard, 1st Vice President
Kari Burgess, Treasurer
Graeme Miller, Secretary
Directors at Large
Kim Geraldi
Sarah Harvey
Patrick Mealey
Nicole Marion-Patola
Vivian Sampson
There are two vacant positions on the Board.
Congratulations Kristian Belliveau
Award Recipient of the 2020 Elise Corbet Scholarship
Congratulations to Kristian Belliveau, recipient of the 2020 Elise Corbet Scholarship. Born and raised in Calgary, Kristian is in his fourth and final year of his undergraduate degree in at the University of Calgary, majoring in History. Kristian is passionate about 20th century European and Canadian History, and intends to pursue a career in Education.
The Elise Corbet Scholarship is sponsored by the Chinook Country Historical Society. It is offered annually to a continuing undergraduate student in the University of Calgary Faculty of Arts, majoring in History. The recipient must take a minimum of two Canadian History courses (and received a grade of B or better in at least two of the courses) and have a GPA of 3.20 or higher in their last 5 history classes.
Membership Contest
New members or current members who renewed/extended membership between December 1, 2021 and February 28, 2022 will be eligible for a draw for one of the three books shown. To join or renew membership, click here:
Join the CCHS Board
The Chinook Country Historical Society Board is seeking 3 members to join our Team! Join our dynamic group to assist us to further the goals of the Society and support our local history community. The Chinook Country Historical Society’s geographical area covers the lands from Olds in the north to Nanton in the south, from the British Columbia border to the Saskatchewan border.
Join us during our monthly presentations and the 11 day Historic Calgary Week festival for a total of more than 75 history events each year!
Two Directors-at Large positions
You will attend ten monthly meetings and have input into the many activities undertaken by CCHS. Directors participate or lead Committees involved in projects such as:
- Organizing and booking monthly programs
- Support and outreach to members
- Development of internal and external communication
- Assisting with events
- Mobile App project
- Financial operations
- Historic Calgary Week
- And more!
An interest in history will assist you to utilize and hone your skills in organization, communication and collaboration, while increasing your knowledge of local history, growing your network and having fun!
Treasurer
In this role you will be an active Board Member while ensuring the financial health of the Society. As the Treasurer you will:
- Process accounts receivable and payable
- Maintain the bank account and act as a signing authority
- Produce regular financial statements
- Develop and monitor the annual budget
- Issue Charitable receipts
- Complete and File applicable Government documents for the Society
- Chair the Finance Committee
- Attend Monthly Board meetings
Your education and experience in accounting will prepare you to take on this role.
Interested? Please contact info@chinookhistory.ca for more information.
Congratulations Doug Cass
Canadian Historical Association, Lifetime Achievement Award
Many historians acknowledge the Glenbow as their favourite archive. Doug Cass had a lot to do with creating a warm and welcoming environment. He was genuinely interested in what researchers were working on and was always helpful in ferreting out sources that enriched and expanded our work. His knowledge of the collections was unparalleled. One hour with Doug was worth a full day’s work in another archives. Over many decades, he has advised researchers working in a diverse range of fields, including histories of petroleum, labour and the working class, Indigenous peoples, the North-West Mounted Police, farming, ranching, politics, railroads, women and gender, and many more. We thank him for his energetic acquisition of manuscripts, photographs, and other archival records that made the Glenbow such an extraordinary place for researching Western Canada. As the library hours were curtailed and staff budgets threatened, Doug maintained professional advocacy for the library and archives, and for the inherent connections among all the collections. We will miss him, and the Glenbow, but we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement and hope his legacy is carried on in the new University of Calgary setting.
Calgary's Grand Old Man
Allan Poyntz Patrick is considered to be Calgary’s first Land Surveyor. He marked the boundaries of Fish Creek Farm in the fall of 1879 for Edgar Dewdney, the new Indian Commissioner. A.P.’s last survey in Calgary was 64 years later! Born in Montreal in 1849, raised in Toronto, Quebec City and Ottawa, A.P. was schooled at Galt Grammar School, Upper Canada College and Royal Military College in Kingston. His early survey career started in 1869 in Ottawa, continued under the direction of Sandford Fleming on the CPR route in 1871, and flourished under the Surveyor-General of Canada in the Northwest Territories starting in 1874.
Allan Patrick was interested in many things during his 98-year lifetime: soldiering; surveying; ranching; drilling for oil; prospecting for coal and silver; farming; promoting irrigation; Calgary politics; World War I military tribunals; hunting; and developing land. The house he built in the late 1880s is still standing in Calgary! His wife Maggie McPherson, who he met in about 1882 near Morleyville, descended from Hudson’s Bay Company employees. She was related to Lord Strathcona’s wife Isabella Sophia Hardisty Smith, Senator Richard Charles Hardisty, and Lady Isabella Clarke Hardisty Lougheed. Patrick’s Calgary survey company was located in downtown Calgary from about 1888 to 1948, during which time his company registered almost 600 new survey plans.
“Calgary’s Grand Old Man” tells A.P.’s story in the context of the times. He was a true pioneer, able to survive rough weather on the prairies or in the mountains. Surveying in all the provinces west of Quebec, Patrick was commissioned as a Land Surveyor in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and for the Dominion of Canada. The book wraps up with a discussion of Allan and Maggie’s family and the legacy he left for them to enjoy.
Almost a year ago, Chinook Country Historical Society sponsored my online presentation hosted by Calgary Public Library. Later this month the book that was promised during that June 2021 presentation will be available for purchase. It includes many pictures, maps, newspaper clippings, illustrations and even two paintings. Fifty of them are in colour! You’ll learn about the Dominion Lands Survey System that is the foundation of our modern land ownership. There is a chapter on Oil City in Waterton Lakes National Park where A.P. discovered oil shows in 1879. And a chapter on Mount Royal Ranche, his 22,000-acre grazing lease west of Cochrane. To secure your copy of this biography by this new author, contact Glen R. Belbeck at outofsocks@gmail.com or at +1-403-909-2992.
