Crown Jewel
An auctioneer holds up what turned out
to be an expensive bottle of whiskey at the Foothills Community Centre auction on
Saturday. The bottle of rye was sold four times for a total of $785. More details
on the auction will be in next week's Western Wheel.
photo by John Barlow
Elusive streaker strikes again as RCMP attempt to
uncover clues
By Jennifer Wiley
Staff Reporter
An unidentified streaker hit Okotoks again last Sunday, leaving local RCMP puzzled
and seeking resident input.
At 4:55 pm Oct. 1 police were notified that two teenage girls had seen an unclothed
male sitting on top of a train bridge near the town bike paths.
This is at least the second time a streaker has been reported in Okotoks in recent
months and Cpl. Dave Blair of the Okotoks RCMP detachment suspects he may be the
same perpetrator who has been sighted in High River and the Black Diamond/ Turner
Valley area.
'We always share information among the (four) communities,' Blair said. 'They are
facing the same problem that we are -- without an accurate description he (the streaker)
could be walking around the streets and no one would recognize him.'
So far, the only description police have of the suspect is that he is white, slim,
in his mid-20s and has black hair that reaches his neck.
Blair added that without so much as a clothing or vehicle description, there is very
little police can do to apprehend the offender until someone comes forward with more
information.
'We ask the public for assistance in these matters,' Blair said.
However, it is not only a lack of information that is preventing police from making
an arrest, but also the fact that the streaker continually disappears before police
arrive on scene after a complaint.
Until the offender is caught, police cannot confirm whether or not the man seen Sunday
is the same man that was seen in Okotoks or the other towns over the summer.
Although police have not received any complaints of the man approaching anyone, concern
is rising over his intentions.
'We get a little apprehensive of people who do this (appear nude in public),' Blair
said, 'and we have small children around who don't need to see that.'
Anyone with additional information can contact the Okotoks RCMP at 938-7046.
Native burial ground exposed by washout
By Cindy Ballance
Editor
In what was an eerie discovery, the remains of a century-old native burial ground
have been exposed near Nature's Hideaway Campground.
The burial ground, located near Pat McHugh's home,
is more than a century old as indicated by the only tombstone intact, the grave of
a white man who died in 1863 while swimming in the river.
'This is a very historical place,' added McHugh who has lived in the area all his
life.
At one time the area housed the Dunbow Industrial Indian School (St. Joseph's) which
was used to teach native children about farming and agriculture. Long since forgotten,
the burial ground, camouflaged by a thicket of caraganas, has now been exposed after
the river began washing out the gravel beneath the cemetery nearly 50 years ago.
According to Pat McHugh the river began to wash out the burial ground in 1952. Now
more than 150 feet of the graveyard has been washed out by the river which was once
only eight feet away.
Due to the wash out of the river, at least four coffins have been exposed leaving
an eerie trace of who was buried there some 100 years ago.
McHugh estimates that most of those buried, around 50 plots, died as a result of
a rash spread of fever in the 1800s.
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The three-storey schoolhouse was closed down in 1923 and later (April 1954) was destroyed in a fire.
Other buildings in the school yard were destroyed in 1936 and the lumber was used for the construction of buildings in Turner Valley during the oil boom years. The chapel bell was installed on the Catholic church in Black Diamond.
'A lot of old Indians used to go to school up here, but the majority are dead,' he explained. 'I knew a lot of native people who had come back to visit.'
McHugh has known about the graveyard ever since he was a child when his father, Frank took up residence on the land in 1928.
McHugh explained that the only effort the province has made to save or preserve the graveyard has been to put up a small fence around the site, of which part is now fallen into the bedrock below.
McHugh added that because the river is a popular place for people to fish or swim, he is certain the graveyard will eventually be destroyed if nothing is done to preserve it.
'This place is well known,' said McHugh. 'I have it on good assumption that people have picked up souvenirs from this graveyard,' he added.
A plaque commemorates the significant history of the area stating that the province recognizes the importance of native education in the area.
However, since the river is beginning to destroy such an important piece of history it is unclear whether the province will do any more to preserve it.
If not, all that will remain will be the impression of coffins in a few sunken holes and perhaps some decayed bones of the lost souls.
