The Stampede Ranch home
Archival-toned aerial view of the ranch grounds, mountains along the horizon

Our History

135 Years
on This Land

Three families, one valley, and a habit of opening the gate to guests.

Scroll the story

A Legacy Worth Elevating

Every Great Ranch Brand Is Built on a True Story

The Stampede Ranch has one of the best in Alberta. It belongs at the heart of the place, not buried in a footnote. What follows is the ranch as it actually happened, era by era.

1885Beginnings at the Bar U

Henry Minesinger Rides In

Henry Minesinger arrives in southern Alberta and takes up work at the storied Bar U Ranch, one of Canada's foundational cattle operations. By the late 1880s the Minesinger–Miles family has struck out on its own, establishing the ranch in the foothills that would one day become The Stampede Ranch.

The country they settled has not changed much: open grass running west into timber, a river cutting through the coulee, and the Rockies holding up the far edge of the sky.

Aerial view of ranch grassland and river flats running west toward the Rocky Mountains

1920–1947Weadick & LaDue

The Showman and the Trick Roper

The property is purchased by Guy Weadick (the visionary showman behind the first Calgary Stampede in 1912, which grew into the rodeo Alberta knows today) together with his wife, champion trick roper Florence LaDue.

Under Weadick the working cattle ranch becomes a dude ranch, one of the first of its kind in the region. A lodge and guest cabins welcome visitors for trail rides, hunting and fishing trips, and ranch rodeos, until Weadick sells the property in 1947. The instinct to host, to make the ranch an experience rather than just an operation, starts here.

Archival-style portrait evoking Guy Weadick in full Western dress, chaps and coiled rope, seated on a rail

1965–2013The Edey Family

The Stampede Boys' Ranch

Mervyn and Bernice Edey take ownership in 1965, continuing both the cattle operation and its tradition of hosting guests. In 1975 Mervyn founds the Stampede Boys' Ranch on the property: a working-ranch refuge offering at-risk young men structure, purpose, and the freedom of ranch life.

Over thirty-eight years, until its close in 2013, it serves more than a thousand boys. It is the chapter of the ranch's history that most changed lives, and it is why "an experience of a lifetime" has never been a marketing line here.

A hay wagon parked under the covered walk in winter, ranch buildings behind

TodayA New Chapter

A Working Ranch, Opening Its Gates

More than 135 years after Henry Minesinger first rode into the foothills, The Stampede Ranch remains a working cattle ranch in Longview, Alberta, roughly an hour southwest of Calgary along the province's storied Cowboy Trail.

Today that legacy is opening its gates to a new era: one of Alberta's premier destinations for weddings, private events, and the kind of Western hospitality this land has offered since Guy Weadick's first guests arrived.

The ranch's timber entry gate at sunset, EST. 1920 sign overhead, the drive leading in
A weathered green farm wagon parked along the drive, foothills behind

Still the Same Land

A Working Ranch,
Not Just a Backdrop

The country hasn't changed since Henry Minesinger first rode into it: open grass running into timber, the foothills holding up the mountains behind. What's changed is who gets to experience it.

“Make it the greatest thing of its kind in the world.”
Guy Weadick
The Stampede Ranch stone entrance sign at the top of the drive

Come See It

The Story Reads Better From the Gate

Site inquiry visits run year-round by appointment, for event and production inquiries only. Walk the ground, stand in the barn, look west at the mountains, and decide whether your event belongs here.

Book a Site Inquiry Visit