John J. Bowlen

From PEI to Buckingham Palace By Tom Reardon John James Bowlen quite possibly took the most diverse route ever travelled from P. E. I. to Buckingham Palace. Visiting the Queen in her house was not a lifelong ambition, but here’s how it came to be. He was born on the family farm near Cardigan, P.E.I., …

Trailblazers ~ Hank Snow

The Singing Ranger ~ by Fred Hauck When we think of singing cowboys, we think Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and here in Canada, we add Wilf Carter (also known as Montana Slim) and Clarence Eugene Snow. If the name C.E. Snow doesn’t ring a bell, maybe his stage name of Hank Snow might. Hank …

From the Archives ~ Peter Welsh

Alberta Stampede Company By Terri Mason Peter Welsh was born in 1878 in Scotland and by 1910 he had immigrated to Canada, settling on Tudesco Farms, a former Canadian Pacific Railway property near Irricana, Alta. He soon moved to Calgary to operate the Calgary Sale Repository, one of the first livery stables in Calgary which also …

From the Archives ~ Fence Phones

Barbed Wire Strung Together the First Telephone System By Duane Gray Migowsky Due to southwest Saskatchewan’s geographic location and sparse population, we realized generations ago that if we want something done, we have to do it ourselves. One of our great do-it-yourself ideas turned barbed wire fences into a communications network. Barbed wire, considered not …