Trailblazers

Andy Russell was what people think of when they hear the word cowboy. He was as at home in the saddle as the drawing room of his mountaintop home near Pincher Creek. He could charm listeners with his stories – or stir them with his anger over what he saw happening to the wilderness he loved. Russell was, through it all, an articulate advocate for the environment, and an accurate observer of nature, and wrote 13 books on what he saw, as well as dozens of magazine articles.

Among his books, Men of the Saddle, the Canadian Cowboy and Andy Russell’s Campfire Stories are spellbinding accounts of the Canadian West. He was the last of a breed to ride the untamed foothills and mountains of the West before the area was opened up by industrial developments. His outdoor documentary films books and articles helped earn him the Order of Canada – and three honourary degrees.

As a young man, he joined Bert Rigall's pack train outfit, breaking horses for them out on the trail, and guiding groups through the treacherous mountain terrain. He held a guiding license in Waterton Lakes National Park from 1936-1960, taking hunters, photographers and adventurers into the wilderness.

During his early photographic safaris he started taking pictures and movies of his own. His first movie was an hour and a half of wildlife footage accompanied by a ‘talk’, and the audiences ate it up.

He has raised a family in these mountains, and passed his love of all things wild on to his children.

Andy Russell, famed conservationist, writer, cinematographer and broadcaster and cowboy, died on June 1, 2005, at the age of 89.