The mural, by
Paul Van Ginkel, was done in 1993. Van Ginkel, a Calgary artist, has a gallery "
In the Heart of Inglewood", at 1312A 9th Avenue, S.E.
The mural serves to immortalize four local chuckwagon drivers from the past, all of whom have left their mark on the sport. All have won the Calgary Stampede's Rangeland Derby at least once, as well as many other rodeos and world championships.
Lloyd Nelson won the Stampede's Rangeland Derby in 1956 and was the last driver to win without a
Sponsored Wagon. Hank Willard won five straight Stampede titles from 1951 to 1955.
Ron and Tom Glass are well known in the sport and competed for several decades.
For a Calgary Stampede threatened by floods and revived on tradition, this is how it has been almost since the beginning: Back behind the Stampede track’s far straightaway, just outside of Barn H, a wooden chuckwagon sits painted in a familiar back-and-white checkerboard pattern.
It belongs to four-time world champion Jason Glass, the son of four-time Stampede champion Tom Glass, the grandson of four-time Stampede champion Ron Glass and great-grandson of three-time Stampede champion Tom Lauder, who competed in the very first chuckwagon races here in 1923.
In the history of the Rangeland Derby, known as the sport’s Half-Mile of Hell, no one has swallowed more dust, chewed on more mud, or won and lost more than the Glass clan, Alberta’s first family of chuckwagon racing.
The Western spirit runs through them as deeply as it does the Stampede and the city that has staged it for 101 years.
“This is what we do,” said Jason Glass, taking a break from tending to his 20 horses stabled for 10 days of competition.
Read more at the Globe and Mail
Note: The Calgary Stampede and the Rangeland Derby are televised nationwide each year.
Les Mcintyre, quoted below, is the voice of the Rangeland Derby.
Chuckwagon Races
Artist: Paul Van Ginkel
1993
Chuckwagon racing is truly a unique western tradition. The heart stopping action, the thundering hooves, the wild eyed, nostril flaring thoroughbreds and the grace and showmanship of the ever romantic cowboy legends, continues to thrill and capture the imaginations and hearts of western families generation after generation.
Quote: Les McIntyre - 1994