News Article courtesy of the Lethbridge Herald – Aug. 23, 2012
Written by Caroline Zentner, Photo by Ian Martens
Backpacks strewn on the floor, a table covered with stickers, paper and strings and 10 bright smiles provided the verdict – the Galt Historic Railway Park is a pretty cool place. “It’s awesome,” said Brinley Wilde, 9, one of 10 children aged six through 10 who attended the Pioneer Day Camp Thursday. “It was really fun. They gave us a nice tour,” said Adler Lybbert, 10. They bubbled with all the things they learned and did during the day: “It has a pretend zombie,” “We got to ride on a speeder,” “There was this jail by the kitchen,” and “Frank went to jail.” The Frank they’re talking about was Frank James, brother of Jesse James. The story goes that Frank and Jesse James, bank and train robbers, were outlaws in the United States but they weren’t wanted in Canada. Frank managed to make his way to the Canadian side of the Coutts-Sweetgrass station where American authorities had no jurisdiction. “He was three feet away and he was taunting them,” said Laura Shuttleworth, leader of the Pioneer Day Camp. The passengers cottoned on to who he was and someone on the Canadian side gave him a shove back across the border where he was arrested. “Do you see this red line?” Brinley said, pointing to a single red board on the station deck. “This side’s Alberta and this side’s the U.S.” “The jail he went to was right here in this building. Pretty cool, eh?” Adler said. The most popular spot on the tour was the jail cells with their barred doors – one of them with a small “zombie” laying on the bed. “If I hadn’t distracted them with the train they would still be in the holding cells,” Shuttleworth said. After the tour, the campers created their own mini-steamer trunks and their own passports, complete with photos and fingerprints. A relay race had teams racing across the border, picking up a bag of Galt coal, which really contained some candy, and getting their passports stamped. Campers also rode the rails in the park’s speeder. “It’s a really cool piece of local history,” Shuttleworth said. The park is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from July 1 to Aug. 31 and by special request from Sept. 1 to June 31.
Kaitlyn Traber and Ila Heggie run up the boardwalk as they take part in a relay race during the Pioneer Day Camp Thursday at the Galt Historic Railway Park in Stirling. The day’s activities included crafts, games, snacks and lunch, as well as rail rides on the Park’s speeder car. Herald photo by Ian Martens
