During the ’80’s they traded cattle for an undeveloped mining property known as the Mammoth Mine a Mammoth, Utah. They developed this mining property which produced a lot of rich ore and is still an operating mine at the present time. During the ’80’s they divided their partnership and then carried on individually. The year 1886 was very dry, and as a consequence grass and water were inadequate for wintering cattle in Utah. William H McIntyre removed a large part of his cattle south to south-eastern Wyoming where feed was more abundant, and took the chance of wintering in Wyoming. That winter of 1886 and 1887 was very sever and he lost practically all of his cattle which he had just moved there. He had as many skinned as it was possible to do, and so, by the time spring came, about all he had left of his venture was a large bunch of hides.
At the time referred to above, sheep had moved into Utah in great numbers and what had been a good cow range was rabidly being “barked” by the sheep and spoiled for cattle. My father began thinking about greener pastures. A friend and business associate of his, W. W. Riter of Salt Lake City, had spent about a year’s time in the Cardston district of Alberta mainly in the hope of bettering his health, and he told my father about the big open country with hardly anyone in it and worlds of grass. The description of Alberta given by Mr. Riter persuaded my father to go up and have a look at this country. The Name Canada immediately conjured up thoughts of long, cold winters in his imagination, and consequently he determined to give Canada a long look before making any permanent move towards locating in that country.
William H. McIntyre was a man of unusual type, of powerful physique, straight and erect in his carriage, standing about six feet three inches in height and weighing about 225 pounds. He wore a small goatee beard and mustache and was an ideal Southern Colonel stamp, but unlike a Southern Colonel, he was reserved and quiet in his manner. He could run an irrigation ditch with his eye, knew how to do a real job of building, had a keen eye for sizing up a cow or a horse, and had a remarkable sense of values. He often told me that one life was not long enough in which to get things done, saying that a man has to be 45 or 50 years old before he really knows just what he wants to do and from then on there is not time enough left in which to do it. He died at Salt Lake City in 1926 at the age of 78 years.
While during his long life he had no church affiliation, he always maintained a high moral standard. When 30 years old my father had married Phoebe Ogden Chase. Her grandfather, Isaac Chase, was the first flour miller in Utah, and his old mill stands as a pioneer relic in Liberty Park at Salt Lake City. What is now Liberty Park was his farm, later passing to Brigham Young. There is a caretaker’s house standing in this park which used to be the home of Isaac Chase. My mother was born in this house.
My father had known William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) in the early days before Buffalo Bill became the showman. Also, the late George Lane, of Bar U fame, had worked for him as a cowpuncher in Utah for about two years, before coming to Alberta.
Along about 1891 father went to Cardston, which was then a small Mormon village, and employed one of the early settlers there, the late C. T. Marsden, to drive him around that part of the country. He made numerous visits during the next three or four years and looked at the country in the spring, summer, fall and the winter, and also to see how the few cattle and horses which belonged to the early settlers had come through the winter and how fat they were the following fall. After about three years of such inspection and deliberation he decided to make his bet int the Milk River Ridge country some 25 miles east of Cardston. This land at that time belonged to the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company and they were anxious for settlers to come in and purchase the land which they owned.
