The showdown at Pocaterra

PLPPI wonder if anyone reading this blog knows anything about this incident. I was told a tale about the formation of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park(PLPP) which has made me curious about a dispute which I know nothing about. Does anyone know if this really happened?

PLPP was created in 1977. Before PLPP was formed, I understand that it was open season in there for snowmobiles.

Pocaterra hut was a busy place today

Pocaterra hut

I was told that in the late seventies, snowmobiles were still entering PLPP illegally and the perpetrators were simply flaunting the law with no consequences. The government finally put their foot down, and decided to enforce the law. The snowmobilers didn’t like this rule, and one Saturday they got together en masse and were going to enter the park, come hell or high water.

I was told that conservation officers blocked the road exactly where the bridge is at Pocaterra and stopped the sledders from entering. This was ostensibly a watershed moment in enforcing the rules of the provincial park.

I’d like to know more details about this if anyone knows anything. I’m certainly grateful to anyone and everyone who had anything to do with prohibiting snowmobiles in PLPP.

2 Comments:

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  1. Bob. I wonder if you checked with http://www.calgarysnowmobileclub.net/ they might have members who still remember about the incident.

  2. although I don’t recall that exact incident, I was skiing these trails with my brother and our dogs ( I eventually learned that dogs don’t need to go skiing )when PLPP was first developed and saw ” skidooers ” many times and with the machine packed trail we liked the speed of the skate stride ( hockey players ) oh yeah the 210cm Bonna and bamboo poles. When the new Lookout trail was put in about 1977 and you could then ski up and over and back to Pocaterra now that made for a long ski day and rarely saw another person.

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