The Cochrane Eagle keeps us well informed of current events happening in our little town by the Bow, however, this story takes us back into the history that shaped Cochrane to the present. After finding some archeological and geological facts, I am going to venture far back in time, which you might find interesting.
Today we are known as “Big Hill Country.” As we look around, we see our big hill at 4,400 feet (1,341.5 metres) above sea level, Our First Nation Peoples called the hill “Manachaban” which means “the place where you get bows.” Wooded foothills began around the Ghost River, (also known as the Deadman River). So named by the Cree Nation because the story was told that a ghost was spotted going down the river picking up skulls of the dead. The Town of Cochrane is at an altitude of 3,760 feet (1,146 m), at a latitude of 51/11 N and longitude of 114/28 W.
Have you ever wondered how the Town of Cochrane and surrounding area were formed, long before people came to settle it? It was shaped by nature millions of years ago.
It was during the Paleozoic Era from about 225-600 million years ago that Alberta, including Cochrane, was covered by inland seas. The various forms of marine life – creatures such as trilobites, which were the first with a complex skeleton, primitive forms of snails, clams, corals and various shells called Brachiopods – left their fossilized remains to educate us as to what they looked like. These remains were subjected to great pressure from overlying beds of silt and sand, subsequently turned to rock and eventually became our present pools of crude petroleum and natural gas. In our time it spurred the discovery of gas fields in the Jumping Pound area and oil wells in the Wildcat Hills region. Recently there have been more wells sprouting up north and east of Cochrane, many of which can be seen along Highway 567 on the way to Airdrie.
Next, the Mesozoic Era between 70-225 million years ago, brought warm marshy swamps with a dense growth of tropical plants, vegetation, palm trees and mosses. It was the age of reptiles, crocodiles and dinosaurs. Their skeletons became fossilized and some of their remains have been found in our area as well as near the Red Deer River and Drumheller Badlands. These remains also provided coal in the Drumheller, Edmonton and Canmore areas.
A well-known resident of the Cochrane area, Sunni Turner, was active in digging for dinosaur bones at Hutchinson Buffalo Jump near Big Hill Springs, Old Man River Dam site and a bone bed on Citadel Hill in Calgary. She pursued her passion in archaeology and geology for a good 10 years, resulting in some extraordinary finds.
Sunni was quoted as saying “Geology is part of our ‘living past’; it has made Big Hill Country what it is today – its rivers and lakes, prairies and rich soils, and oil and gas.”
About 40-70 million years ago (the Cenozoic Era), the geography of Alberta began to take shape through the violent periods of upheaval and mountain building. “The geography of Alberta was starting to take shape,” as Sunni puts it. “The Rocky Mountains rose to form the backbone of the continent and inland seas were replaced by interior plains.”
Now, we in Cochrane are fortunate enough to see well known peaks such as Black Mountain, Devil’s Head and a glorious mountain range on a clear sunny day.
It was the Cenozoic Era when warm-blooded animals appeared: the small three-toed horse, the sabre-tooth tiger and hairy mammoths.
There have been some fantastic finds and evidence of various animal life in the Cochrane area. Gordon Hall of Cochrane had parts of an extinct western bison (Bison occidentalis), about 11,600 years old; the extinct Mexican ass, Equur conversidens was 11,600 years old; and the main beam of a woodland caribou, Rangifer caribou – all were found in Clarke’s gravel pit at Cochrane. These were identified by A. MacS. Stalker and C.S. Churcher of the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa in the 1960s. An ancient Bighorn Sheep specimen, approximately 11,000 years old, was found in the Griffin pits. All the above are in the museum in Ottawa.
In closing, I would like to thank Sunni Turner for her assistance and willingness to share her knowledge with all the people in Cochrane.
