Key Number:	HS 54785
Site Name:	Oxley Ranch House / The Leavings at Willow Creek
Other Names:
Site Type:	0501 - Farming and Ranching: Farm or Ranch House 1311 - Governmental: Police Station or Post

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			13	28	4

Address:
Number:
Street:
Avenue:
Other:
Town:
Near Town:	Claresholm

Media

Type	Number	Date	View
Digital scan of Negative Digital scan of Negative Digital scan of Negative Digital scan of Negative Digital scan of Negative Digital scan of Negative	83-R0090-06 83-R0090-08 83-R0090-09 83-R0090-11 83-R0090-13 83-R0090-14	1983/03/17 1983/03/17 1983/03/17 1983/03/17 1983/03/17 1983/03/17	Northeast East Southeast Southwest Northwest Northwest

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:	Square
Storeys:	Storeys: 1 1/2
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Concrete
Superstructure:	Horizontal Log
Superstructure Cover:	Wood: Flush Board
Roof Structure:	Medium Gable
Roof Cover:	Wood Shingle
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Single Detached Wings: Unknown Wings: Rear and Either Side Number of Bays - Facade: First or Ground Floor, 6 Bays Number of Bays - Facade: Second Floor, 1 Bay Wall Design and Detail: Corner Board Roof Trim - Eaves: Projecting Eaves Roof Trim Material - Eaves: Wood Roof Trim - Verges: Projecting Verges Roof Trim - Verges: Plain Fascia Roof Trim - Verges: Plain Frieze Roof Trim Material - Verges: Wood Towers, Steeples and Domes: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Centre Chimney Location - Side to Side: Offset Right Chimney Location - Front to Rear: Centre Chimney Stack Material: Brick Chimney Stack Massing: Single Roof Trim - Special Features: None Window - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Moulded Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: Wood Window - Sill Type: Plain Slip Sill Window - Sill Material: Wood Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Number of Sashes: One Window - Number of Sashes: Two, Double Hung Window - Number of Sashes: Other Window - Opening Mechanism: Unknown Window - Opening Mechanism: Single or Double Hung Window - Special Types: None Window - Pane Arrangements: 2 over 2 Window - Pane Arrangements: 6 over 6 Main Entrance - Location: Centre (Facade) Main Entrance - Location: Not on Facade Main Entrance - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening Material: Wood Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Number of Leaves: 1 Main Entrance - Leaves - Special Feature: Shaped Panel
Exterior:	Construction in 3 episodes: 1870's, 1880's, 1940's. Intact. Clapboard on both additions. Kountz cabin log exterior -> chinking; in this part beginning to deteriorate (2011). Horizontal log and plank covering (log portion was probably original). L-jointed gables with later rear shed addition. Double-hung windows. Outside cellar entrance.
Interior:	Finished, intact..
Environment:	Located by Willow Creek in a valley plateau opposite present owner's residence. On Willow Creek Flood Plain.
Condition:	Structure: Good (1983) Standing, intact, minor deterioration (2011)
Alterations:	Addition in 1940's. Cellar dug 1940s. Knob and tube wiring added 1940s.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Completed Construction Started	1880/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Currently (2011) not in use Farming and Ranching: Ranch House Farming and Ranching: Ranch House	1880/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
North West Mounted Police Stavely Hill Herb Maurushat Scott Maurushat	1880/01/01 1983/03/23 2011/12/13

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	Henry Kantz, NWMP / Oxley Ranch, Maurushat's
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	The house was built in 3 episodes. 1. Henry Kountz stopping house 1870s. 2. NWMP or Oxley Ranch addition 3. 1940’s addition by Scott Maurushat’s grandparents. It is unclear if this is the original location of the Kountz cabin or if it was moved here from a few miles away. The Kountz stopping house was bought by Oxley Ranch in 1882. John Craig, the first manager of the Oxley Ranch built a home for his family in 1883-1984 using this location as the original ranch headquarters. In 1886, Craig parted ways with the New Oxley Ranch and the headquarters of the ranch were moved to 31-13-28-W4M. The NWMP began using the location / buildings as an outpost in1886. After Graig left in 1891, the NWMP rented all of his buildings at this location, including the use of a 55 acre NWMP horse pasture nearby. The outpost was named until 1903. * * * The British M.P. in the House of Commons, who, with the help of Lord Lathan's money, began the Oxley Ranch--Stavely Hill. According to present owner, Herb Maurushat, site was originally part of the Oxley Ranch, owned by the British M.P., Stavely Hill and his financier, Lord Lathan. John Craig, the ranch manager, built this house for himself, probably in the 1880's. Because of poor management and/or lack of finances the 100,000 acre Oxley Ranch went under. At some point the North West Mounted Police used the premises as a detachment, until they moved to Claresholm. Mr. Maurushat also suggests that the house was once a two storey, a photo of the North West Mounted Police Detachment is recorded in the 'Leaves of the Medicine Tree' -- a two-storey building is shown. Present owner would like to restore but is afraid that publicizing site would encourage visitors. ========================== D-1832 - OXLEY RANCH BUILDINGS HISTORICAL CONTEXT: When the Montana cattle industry began to thrive in the aftermath of the American civil war, and the extension of railways to the western states, many cattle barons began to extend their activity north of the 49th Parallel. Sensitive to the encroachment of American influence in western Canada, the Dominion government took several measures to ensure the "Canadianization" of this region. A Department of the Interior was formed to oversee developments on the central prairies, a North-west Mounted Police force was formed to establish law and order, and a Dominion Lands Act was passed to see to the orderly disposition of Crown lands to British subjects, or those who would agree to become British subjects. Plans were also put in place to extend a transcontinental railway through the region. Another measure taken by the government to ensure the loyalty of the region to Canada was to encourage a ranching industry in the western foothills, with capital to be provided by eastern Canadian and British entrepreneurs. For such Canadian or British cattle companies, vast tracts of land would be set aside as grazing leases. By the early 1880's, much of the southern foothills of what was to become Alberta was therefore given over to a few major cattle companies, including the Cochrane, Winder, Walrond, Northwest, Quorn, Stewart and Stinson Ranches. Their success depended to a great extent on the arrival of the CPR, which reached the site of Fort Calgary in 1883. Another major ranching operation was founded in 1882 by Alexander Staveley Hill, a Conservative Member of the British House of Commons, backed by Lord Lathan. This was the Oxley Ranch, which came to base its operation on two vast tracts in the districts of present day Champion and Staveley, north of Fort Macleod. This ranch flourished throughout most of the 1880's and 1890's, and, during much of this time, its success appears to have been due to the efficient management of John Roderick Craig. An added benefit was the extension of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway from Calgary to Fort Macleod in 1892, which eliminated the necessity of making long cattle drives to Calgary. By the end of the decade however, changes were in the air. In order to provide a greater population base in western Canada, the new Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier began to curtail the predominance of many of the large ranches by not renewing the grazing leases on much of the range land. The idea was to encourage smaller independent farms and ranches, which would specialize in mixed farming. During the early 20th century, many of the large ranches went out of business, while others saw their scope of operation severely curtailed, including the Oxley Ranch. During its heyday, the western portion of the Oxley Ranch had based its operation from headquarters on NE14 TP13 R28 W4. On this site today are a log house which was, no doubt, part of the Oxley Ranch operation at some point, and possibly the home of its manager, John Craig. It is located next to a trail that extended from Fort Macleod to Calgary, but which went out of use after the E & E Railway to the east saw the center of activity also shift, when railway communities like Claresholm and Staveley emerged. Near the house is a wood frame barn on a large concrete foundation built into a hillside which could also have been part of the Oxley Ranch. The buildings are also spoken of as having been part of a North-west Mounted Police detachment, which existed in the district in the late 1880's, but was moved to Claresholm shortly after the railway came through. The grazing lease of NE14 TP28 R4 W5 expired by 1906, for, in September of that year, the quarter was applied for by John Morgan as a homestead, with Morgan gaining title in December, 1909. From that point on, it would serve as a small farm. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The historical significance of the Oxley Ranch buildings lies in their provision of structural evidence of this ranching operation, one of the biggest in the southern Alberta foothills, prior to 1900. As such, they tell of both social and commercial activities of the ranch, and of the southern Alberta cattle industry in general during this time. The buildings are also important in being close to the original cattle trail between Fort Macleod and Calgary, which was the major thoroughfare between these two centers prior to the coming of the railway in 1892. * * * DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE The Leavings (Oxley Ranch) site consists of a one and one-half storey log house, log and sandstone barn, log stable, and such landscape elements as a well, plantings, and cart trails, as well as various archaeological resources. The site occupies 30.1 hectares near Claresholm, Alberta. HERITAGE VALUE The heritage value of the Leavings (Oxely Ranch) lies in its representation of early ranching activity in southern Alberta. In addition, the Leavings is significant for its association with the Fort Macleod-Calgary Trail, the major north-south thoroughfare prior to the Calgary and Edmonton Railway in 1892, and with the establishment of law and order in the region through the North West Mounted Police (N.W.M.P). The site thus provides rare structural evidence of initiatives by the Canadian government to secure the West from American encroachment after Confederation: the granting of large-scale ranch leases to British-Canadian investors, and the creation of a federal police force. The term "Leavings" indicated a place where a trail "left" a water supply, where travelers could obtain supplies of water and wood. After Fort Calgary was established in 1875 there were regular supply ("bull") trains and stagecoaches from Fort Benton in Montana to Fort Macleod and on to Calgary. The Leavings was one of four spots along the route chosen as a camping ground and, by the mid-1870s a stopping house, operated by a former buffalo hunter and whiskey trader, Henry Kountz. In 1882, the New Oxley Ranch secured a lease for 200,000 acres from the Dominion Government, making it one of the four largest ranches in the foothills region. The ranch's first manager, J.R. Craig, purchased the stopping house and constructed the barn. The Leavings continued to serve as a stopping point for travelers, and it became a post office and centre for social activities even after the ranch headquarters was relocated north along the river in 1884. From 1886 until 1903 the North West Mounted Police took advantage of the important location of the Leavings by manning an outpost from the site, sending patrols north and west through the Porcupine Hills. After the completion of the Calgary and Edmonton (C & E) Railway, however, traffic on the trail declined and the garrison moved to Claresholm. The grazing lease expired in 1906, at which point the Leavings became part of a homestead. The house and stable at the Leavings (Oxley Ranch) are among the oldest structures extant in southern Alberta, and rare surviving evidence of an N.W.M.P. outpost. Source: Alberta Community Development, Heritage Resource Management Branch (File: Des. 1832) CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS The heritage value of the Leavings (Oxley Ranch) is contained in such character-defining elements as: - form, scale and massing of the house and barn; - remnants of the Fort McLeod-Calgary trail above the break of bank of Willow Creek; - viewscapes west, south and north across Willow Creek and to the mountains. Log House: - log construction of house, using double saddle notching at corners, in L-shaped plan with a shed addition on the west elevation; - horizontal shiplap boarding covering south elevation; - cedar shingles on roof; - concrete slab foundation; - fenestration pattern; - well. Log and Sandstone Barn: - log construction of barn, with sandstone blocks in foundation and walls and timber framing sheathed with vertical boards in the second-storey hayloft; - situation: built into side of hill; - gable roof with cedar shingles; - stall partitions, plank flooring, posts and beams supporting loft floor above; - fenestration pattern, one window space each of north and south walls, Dutch door; - vertical pole paving (posts driven into floor giving cobble stone effect); - hand-forged nails; - remnants of whitewashed interior; - carvings on barn walls and sandstone blocks (e.g. brands, names, dates; "1884" carved into block below north window); - attached shed (1920s); - electrical wiring to house and barn. Archaeological: The Leavings (Oxley Ranch) includes character-defining archaeological resources such as: - two track depression northeast of the barn defining a trail segment, likely the remnants of the historic Calgary-McLeod trail; - historic dump of materials along the bank of Willow Creek immediately southwest and east of a structure identified as a chicken coop.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
(not assigned) Provincial Historic Resource	2006/11/17

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places: