Memories of Life on The Grizzly Bear Coulee

The Grizzly Bear Coulee is a magnificent valley in Central Alberta. It is said that in 1754, a Cree Indian guide named Attickasish brought Anthony Henday to this beautiful spot not far from the present day Saskatchewan and Alberta border. Henday was one of the first white men to explore western Canada and he travelled farther than anyone before him. Henday was an unlikely scout as he was a convicted smuggler born on the Isle of Wight, but he was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company to convince trappers in the Canadian interior to bring their goods to the HBC. His precise route is uncertain because his original journey did not survive and remaining accounts are contradictory. However, the story goes that, one day, while hunting in an unnamed coulee, two hunters were attacked by a wounded Plains Grizzly Bear and one of the men died, giving name to the deep valley that runs to the Battle River. Franklin Wolters was raised atop of the Grizzly Bear Coulee and shares his stories with readers each week in The Vermillion Voice newspaper. Here, he has gathered together his memories of this beloved landscape. It is his hope that he can capture a time that is now gone but one that will be remembered and valued for all of its beauty, simplicity, hard-living and love.