A Brand of Its Own: The 100 Year History of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede

R. Douglas Francis is a history professor at the University of Calgary
and author of Images of the Canadian West.

The Calgary Stampede has become an amazingly world-famous event. That fame is the result of what the Stampede represents: a romantic West of cowboys, Indians, excitement, adventure, and success. That this image does not correspond to the reality of the Canadian West, and particularly to the sedate and conservative nature of the early ranching community of western Canada, does not matter. For the image has become more “real” than reality. And James Gray’s A Brand of Its Own will continue to perpetuate that myth as a sensationalized, romantic, and dramatic history of the event.

The history of the Calgary Stampede contains many ironies. It began as an agricultural fair, but it succeeded only when it became associated with ranching in southern Alberta — the occupation most opposed to the agricultural community. The Stampede had innumerable false starts and initially lacked public and government support, yet it was to reach a level of popularity that would put the city of Calgary and the province of Alberta on the world map. This all-Canadian show owed its early success to an American vaudeville showman, Guy Weadick, who succeeded only when he turned the Stampede into an American-style wild west show, which had no semblance of identity with the peaceful ranching community of southern Alberta that it represented. Finally, the Stampede reached its zenith of popularity in the 1950s and ‘60s, a time when Calgary ceased to be a “cow town” and had become a modern North American urban centre.

James Gray has not capitalized on these ironies, for he accepts the promoters’ myth. It is difficult to distinguish fact and fiction in his romanticized account of the Stampede. Yet it is precisely this “sensationalism” — presented in an attractive coffeetable-style book replete with over 120 color and black-and-white photographs — that will make this book so appealing. People want to believe that this romantic Canadian West really existed. It did not, but A Brand of Its Own will momentarily convince many that it did.

James Gray’s account of the struggles and triumphs of this world-famous event, like the show itself, is great entertainment. The Stampede’s promoters could ask no more.