“Uncle” Tony Day and the “Turkey Track” Ranch

Source: excerpt from The Forgotten Corner history book

A.J. (Uncle Tony) Day, with his relatives, brought from Texas into this district, twenty-two thousand head of cattle and seven hundred head of horses.  He paid $40,000 import duty when he crossed the border into Canada (at that time the North West Territories.)  Always following the open range, the outfit crossed into Canada in 1902-1903.  Born in the southern area of Texas in 1849, he knew slavery, the Civil War and the chaos it left.  In 1902 they sold their American holdings and moved to Canada.  Those were the days of the cowboy, the big round-up and branding on the open prairie with irons heated in a pile of buffalo chips.

*Note:  There was evidence that some of these brandings occurred on the flats that is now the Spangler Irrigation Project.  The “Turkey Track” branding irons were found in the area.