BOW VALLEY – Local legend Jim Brewster set out on one of his usual hunting adventures in search of a grizzly bear.
He found what he was looking for and shot the bear, but when the hulking beast was unphased and chased Brewster up a tree. In likeness to the story of The Three Little Pigs, the big bear was going to bite and claw the tree down.
Brewster held on tight, “shaking like a leaf” well into the night before the bear got bored and left the treed man unscathed.
“That’s the closest he’d ever come to dying, and parting with his hat and good old cowboy boots,” read a line from local author and historian Graham MacDonald’s new book.
In MacDonald’s Mountain Humour, he shares the stories of local legends like Brewster with a quirky twist. The stories start with small excerpts of history and background on the characters in the form of poems and ballads, with comedy sprinkled throughout.
“These are our visionaries and our old timers that have made an impact in the Bow Valley and some aspects of their stories are very, very funny,” said MacDonald.
His vision for the book was sparked by his need to bring some chucks and gigs to the world that he says has felt stressful, anxious and unhappy in recent times.
“I said that we need more laughter, we need things that are funny, we need things that are going to divert our attention away from so many things that are creating so many problems in the world today,” MacDonald said.
The book recounts ten true stories, with some dated in the 1800s, of icons like Bill Peyto, Bobby Orr, Jim Davies and Jimmy Simpson, among others.
“There’s a book on Jimmy Simpson, and there is a small section on there talks about some of the funny things in his life, and I love researching that,” said MacDonald.
“I said, ‘if you're writing a story you got to make a funny, humourous one.’”
The book also shares a pair of tales from two outgoing animals in the Banff National Park. One being about Sammy the Buffalo, the male bison who figured out how to walk across Texas gates in the 1990s.
Sammy’s actions earned him the nickname ‘Wandering Bull’ in an old Crag and Canyon article after he developed a promiscuous attitude during mating season.
“Now he can wander wild and free, but when he’d yearn for some gal’s company, he’d simply walk across the gate,” read a line from the book.
In the first half of the 75-page book, MacDonald imagined ten fictional tales of niche Bow Valley activities and quirks.
“It’s just your imagination going wild and trying to create funny incidents that don’t happen, but could happen,” said MacDonald.
One story follows the naive first-time golfer at the Banff Springs golf course and the irritation that comes with the game.
“I created a really funny story about a golfer that thinks that he could be good, but at the end of the line, he's so frustrated,” said MacDonald. “Golfers can identify with certain aspects of that because it gets so frustrating.”
Accompanying each story are MacDonald’s own hand drawn cartoon illustrations with their own unique jokes.
“Once I read the poems it took me quite a while to kind of come up with the illustrations, but it was a very creative part of it and I just got lost in them,” said MacDonald while flipping through and looking at his drawings.
Mountain Humour is available at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies’ bookstore and Café Books. MacDonald can also be contacted by email at graham_macdonald@shaw.ca.
