This story is not just about a ranch or about a few people who attempted a commercial venture in the west. This family history is about a man of Irish/English decent, Michael James Stapleton, who left his family and his sweetheart in Petrolia, Ontario, and came west with hordes of other people that were encouraged to populate the Western Canadian prairies by the Government of Canada.

Three boys; Patrick, Tobias (Tobe) and Mike Stapleton; came west and started farming in the Fort Macleod area of Alberta.

Three million people poured into the West between the turn of the century and 1914. Land was available in lots of 160 acres, merely for a filing fee of $10.00. Barry Broadfoot points this out in his books, “The Pioneer Years 1895-1914” and in Ten Lost Years 1929-1939.

This story is an example of how a large family, who became an icon in their time, despite their toughness and ingenuity, they just could not buck the tides of climate and weather cycles, disastrous product market conditions, and the politics of the day.

Irish explorer John Palliser was sent by the Royal Geographical Society to report on the Canadian Prairies in 1857. Despite warnings by Palliser that southeast Alberta was almost useless for agriculture, the Government of Canada still encouraged settlement. Tens of thousands of them came. The area is now known as the Palliser Triangle. Michael James Stapleton was the Lone Star. He was one who took up the challenge and moved into the short grass country.

Mike Stapleton must have seen something in 1905-06 that encouraged him to settle on the Red Deer River. These were wetter years and the grasses probably looked good. However, he was taking a calculated risk setting up a commercial enterprise in the Palliser Triangle.

Mike succeeded for about 30 years. In spite of the droughts, bad winters and economic downturns. The Stapletons made quite a name for themselves in Southeast Alberta. However, the combination of; M. J. being a Liberal instead of a Conservative, his fights with the government of the day over grazing lease rates, and his becoming ill in the mid-depression; resulted in disaster. When son, Murray, needed him most, to help manage the ranch, a final blow came with the winter of 1937. The snows were so deep the cattle and horses could not be fed at the outlying cow camps and horse camps. By the spring of ’38 it was all over for the Stapletons and the Lone Star Ranch.

The Jim Spratt Letters describe difficult times for the Stapletons during the winters of 1935 to 1938. Jim Spratt was the head cowboy who looked after one of the camps at the eastern end of the ranch. He pencilled reports and requests and put his letters on the train at Buffalo for delivery to the ranch homestead at Jenner.

The Stapletons were not alone. The 1926 census counted 10,000 abandoned farms in Southern Alberta (Canadian Geographic Magazine). The Stapleton lasted much longer than 1926, but they had to give up in the end. People say that if they had lasted until the war, they might have been okay.

Lone Star Ranch, Jenner, Alberta, Canada