Jean Barton: Using ranches as movie, TV sets

Each year on the Western Livestock Journal ranch tours we learn something new. When we were in Minnesota we learned about ethanol, in Washington it was apple farming and packing for market. This year it was another way to have extra income by using the ranch for movie and television sets. The CL Ranch was established on banks of Jumping Pound Creek in 1887 by the great-grandfather with Shorthorn cattle, and in the 1930s they changed to Herefords. Now the cattle are a composite of Hereford, Simmental/Brown Swiss and they are adding an English breed, Suffolk, a wine red beef animal known as Red Poll in the states. They calve from April 25th in 45 day calving. There were moveable wind breaks in the calving field on the cousin’s land. At birth the calves get a RFI identification tag and a herd tag. A RFI tag is required for all beef cattle in Canada. They ranch on deeded land, Indian land and Crown Land owned by Queen Elizabeth. All the wild life is owned by the Queen; the elk, white tail and mule deer, moose, coyotes, cougars, wolves, grizzly bears,geese, etc. The rancher can supply a guide for hunting, but cannot charge for hunting. The ranchers don’t own the mineral rights to the ground they own. 100 years ago this was open land, since 10,000 head of buffalo kept the poplars, spruce and aspen from taking over. Now the government won’t let you cut the trees, or burn them, or sell them...We couldn’t go on the set, but we saw lots of trailers and the horses that were part of the wranglers group. “Hell on Wheels” was being filmed about the railroad going across the US, set in 1880s. Was told it was a crew of 100, and some days 250 people. From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. the crew is present on the ranch. The gravel road had calcium chloride for dust control. Any time a movie came in and built something, they leave it, and we walked into a ‘50s café, and there was an old house. In the warehouse CL Ranch had an accumulation of 25 years collection of props. A niece was doing an inventory of the 45,000 items and setting the price to rent the item. The costumes were made, not original, but there were old lamps, furniture, old books, ledgers, china, shovels, axes, matches, silver, table clothes, trunk with wool blankets. You name it, and I am sure it was in the warehouse. The filming crews are here from February to October, and pay rental based on location. This is the 5th season they have been filming on the ranch. Calgary is the 4th largest production center in Canada...more