the terrain of fort macleod is flat as you're ever gonna find and skies are blue...to the west about 40 miles away you see a beautiful wall of the first ridge of rocky mountains...fort macleod is at a junction of highway 2, a divided highway that goes to calgary, red deer, and edmonton, and the east-west two lane highway that you have to turn on if you want to go to lethbridge to the southeast, or west to the crowsnest pass, which is the way to cowboy-country pincher creek, the turn-off to the beautiful waterton lake resort, or through the pass to fernie, cranbrook, and kimberly b.c., noted for ski resorts... the wind is notorious coming out of the crowsnest pass and there are windmills dotting the foothills on the way for generating electricity...rum runners used to smuggle booze here into b.c. during Prohibition...the italian boss of it hung for murder along with his pregnant girlfriend, right in fort macleod... the foothills before you get to the actual mountains are very beautiful and quite green...some of the finest ranching country in the world... the airbase where cmdr. bill anderson rcaf worked is now connected to the town, on its western outskirts in old green plywood buildings, a couple of which still appear to be used as cheap accomodation, a few old hangars and machine shops nearby... the main street has a charm to it and the old buildings have been preserved...you can stop at a great chinese cafe right in the center of it... the town has character more than beauty...and a history...the rcmp used to be called the nwmp - the north-west mounted police...who were sent out west to manage the indian threat as well as let the americans know that the region was not theirs to take...fort macleod was their first outpost in alberta, predating calgary, and named after col. james macleod, who had, because of his prediliction for naming things after himself, raised a little ire down east (western canadians don't say 'back east')...highway 2 is historically the macleod trail and it picks up its traditional name again once you enter calgary...it becomes a kind of el camino real (for those of you familiar with the circus-like avenue defining alot of the san mateo peninsula south of sanfran)... fort macleod summers are hot, winters have these bizarre chinook winds which heat the place up over night, and windy usually... fort macleod is rather unique...it is paprika plains, with grandeur and excitement along its borders... the blood indians, along with other prairie tribes, were deliberately made dependent on the white man when the buffalo was wiped out...they'd line up in long queues for food at the forts...and thanx to the whiskey traders, often yankees, ended up "smashed on railway avenue"... now the blood tribe threaten with road blockades and militancy, but not too often... the uniqueness and character of fort macleod makes it a fitting birthplace for joni mitchell... shane
