I’m hooked on cemeteries. They hold so much potential for great stories.

Lloydtown Pioneer Cemetery, Lloydtown, Ontario, Canada’s rebel town

My fascination started years ago on a high school exchange to Boston. I was strolling through Boston Common and the Granary Burying Ground where Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and John Adams are buried along with “Mother Goose”. Mother Goose? What a surprise and not without controversy, and that’s what hooks me. Always more questions than answers with a good cemetery story.

There’s a family history of cemetery love. Ancestors of mine made monuments and gravestones in Quebec. One became a sculptor and made World War I memorials too. Two generations later, my mother began traipsing through cemeteries in Canada, the US, England, Scotland and Ireland and poring over town and church records long before the web made genealogy searches easier. I took a trip with her to Scotland in the 1990s. Copies of wills, ancient newspaper obits, and old letters mapped our route. We got our first hit in St. Cuthbert’s Burying Ground in downtown Edinburgh. A grave of a grandfather from way back. His epitaph read “Death is a debt to nature due that I have paid and so must you”. I never forgot the little verse and always thought it was his until I googled it today. Up popped several sites including a fascinating New York Times story on Sleepy Hollow Cemetery from 1894.

Titanic grave site at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax

Monument erected to the memory of an unknown child from the Titanic disaster

Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia is in every Halifax guidebook. The cemetery is one of three in the city that hold the graves of Titanic victims. Its Titanic gravesite has 121 graves lined in a curve on a knoll, like the bow of a boat. When we visited, stuffed animals and cards were scattered around the base of the Unknown Child and J. Dawson’s grave was covered with handwritten love letters. I wonder if Leonardo Di Caprio knows of the effect he’s had here or what the real J. Dawson buried here would think. He was Joseph Dawson from Dublin Ireland,  a 23 year old coal trimmer. The Old Burying Ground in downtown Halifax dates to 1749. This is where British Major General Robert Ross was laid to rest. He and his troops burned Washington DC in the War of 1812. And you wondered how the White House became the White House?  2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Titanic tragedy and 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. I’m betting both cemeteries will have a steady stream of visitors then.

The Old Burying Ground in Halifax

Lloydtown Pioneer Cemetery was our introduction to Lloydtown, Ontario and its prominent place in history. In the 1830s, rebels led by town founder, Jesse Lloyd and outspoken journalist/politician William Lyon MacKenzie met here and planned the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. Every Canadian school kid has heard of the rebellion but it’s hard to believe that today’s Lloydtown was once the #2 town behind Toronto in Upper Canada. The Rebellion failed but not before the rebels had planted the seed for democratic and responsible government in Canada. LLoyd fled to the US where he died in 1838 leaving a young wife and fourteen children behind. They’re buried in the little 1834 cemetery along with other early Lloydtown settlers.

Graves at the Crowfoot Cemetery

Crowfoot Cemetery sits high above the Bow River in the Badlands of southeastern Alberta.  Below, a ridge of land stretches across the Bow underwater. For centuries, migrating herds of buffalo, horses and people crossed the river at this point. Blackfoot Crossing became historically significant over time and in 1877, Chief Crowfoot signed famous Treaty 7 here. The cemetery is the final resting place of Chief Crowfoot. Little crosses with the names Running Rabbit, Bad Boy Lepetre, Owl Child and Benedict Prairie Chick gave us a brief glimpse of Blackfoot life. Siksika Nation is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy which also includes the Piikani and Kainaiwa of southern Alberta and the Blackfeet of Montana. Down the road from the cemetery, Blackfoot Crossing opened in 2007. It is Canada’s largest aboriginal historic site dedicated to telling the story of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Walking among the graves at Crowfoot Cemetery

After a visit to the Sedalia Coop in the hamlet of Sedalia, Alberta (pop. 18), we were on a gravel road headed for Cereal when we came across this prairie pioneer home. A plaque on one side caught our eye and we stopped to read it:

The Gray Homestead in the Canadian Badlands of southeastern Alberta

Dancer performing at the opening of Blackfoot Crossing

Bob Fisher’s piece on the Siksika Nation and the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park Interpretive Centre is much more in-depth than most travel articles. Here’s a link to it.

Make sure you scroll down to the bottom for links to videos taken at Blackfoot Crossing.

Here’s a link to some of Bob Cromwell’s pictures taken at the opening.

This is the incredible view from the new one-room honeymoon cabin on the Alberta Western Uplands ranch, approximately two hours north of Medicine Hat, Alberta in western Canada. This ranch is also home to a refurbished 1903 homesteader’s cabin that sleeps twelve comfortably. Oliver North, who became famous during the Reagan years, stayed here once. In summer, the lodge operates as a B&B. A room and a full “cowboy” breakfast of bacon and eggs with homebaked beans and toast will run you between $100 and $130 Canadian. 650 head of cattle roam the ranch’s 34,000 acres. This is a working ranch. Round-ups, calving and branding are still done much the same way they were eighty years ago.

Another great honeymoon spot is Elkwater Lake Lodge & Resort in the heart of Cypress Hills, the only interprovincial park in Canada. The park straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and commands a magnificent view of Montana’s Sweetgrass Hills. Cypress Hills is where Sitting Bull and the Sioux fled to following the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. The inn is open all year. Its accommodations include big lofts with fully equipped kitchens, flat screen TVs and wood burning fireplaces. www.elkwaterlakelodge.com

The Heartwood Inn & Spa, Drumheller, Alberta

Drumheller’s Heartwood Inn & Spa has its own “Honeymooner’s Cottage” located at the back of the property, surrounded by lilac bushes. The cottage comes equipped with a fireplace, fridge, queen-sized bed, cable TV and jacuzzi tub for two. www.innsatheartwood.com

How about a honeymoon in a tipi? The new Blackfoot Crossing in Siksika Nation offers tipi sleepovers in an authentic tipi village. Each sleepover includes access to all of Blackfoot Crossing’s amenities – tours, art gallery, library, and dance performances. www.blackfootcrossing.ca

Darcy with his caboose in Brooks, Alberta

Glenn and I have been working with the Canadian Badlands for the past two years. On our first product tour of the area in July, 2007, we had the pleasure of touring the Brooks-Bassano area with Bob Cromwell and D’Arcy Pharmacy, two locals involved with tourism in the region. This part of the Canadian Badlands is about an hour and a half east of Calgary along the Trans Canada Highway so, easy to get to on a Badlands road trip.

Bob and D’Arcy took us on a great tour that included the Bassano Dam, Rosie’s Diner (great stop for java and homemade pie), and Siksika Nation, home of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Chief Crowfoot Cemetary, Siksika Nation, Alberta

A particularly poignant stop for all of us was the little Chief Crowfoot Cemetery on Siksika Nation. It sits high above the Bow River valley,  just south of the Trans Canada Highway. The cemetery is the final resting place for several Blackfoot including Chief Crowfoot, who signed the famous Treaty 7 in 1877. The names on the graves give a glimpse into Siksika Nation life. Running Rabbit, Bad Boy Lepetre and Owl Child. What is particularly sad is the number of young we found buried in this cemetery. Siksika Nation (Blackfoot) is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy which also includes the Piikani and Kainaiwa of southern Alberta and the Blackfeet of Montana.

Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park

Just five minutes from the cemetery, you’ll find the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. This architectural gem of a museum just opened in 2007. It is filled with Blackfoot Confederacy history and artefacts. Blackfoot Crossing is an actual ridge of land stretching underwater across the Bow River. For centuries, migrating herds of buffalo, people and horses were able to cross the river with relative ease and the crossing became significant in Canadian history as a meeting place and later as the site of the Treaty 7 signing. You can read more about it and about Siksika Nation at http://www.siksikanation.com.

Also check out the Treaty 7 Management Corporation site at http://www.treaty7.org

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