Bud Cotton's memory, like his sapphire-blue eyes, has dimmed little as is evident in the glowing accounts set down in this fascinating little book.
He tells of exciting years while riding for large outfits in Southern Alberta, including the Pat Burns outfit, from 1906 to 1913; riding alone as a night jingler, with a spooked saddle bunch in 1911 (the night the cyclone almost blew out Regina); helped to run 12,000 head of cattle through mange dip on the Blackfoot Reserve, near Cluny, Alberta; and assisted with the drive of wild horses along the Calgary Stampede route in '12.
When Bud Cotton joined the warden staff at Wainwright Buffalo Park Reserve in 1913, he was to have more excitement in his life--such as having three or four horses killed under him during buffalo roundups.
Bud is the only man living in Canada today, and possibly the world, who herded buffalo for more than twenty years from atop a horse.
From many pleasurable hours spent in conversation with Bud Cotton, I saw, beneath the surface of this quiet-spoken man, a sensitive but unconquerable spirit.
Ethal Mitchell
Calgary |
