The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Yeehaw like a Royal in Canada’s unsung city of big hats, stampedes and steaks
From its world-class rodeo to its vibrant grassroots music scene, Calgary can make a cowboy out of anyone – even a future king, says LA Robinson
What do Tony Blair, Yellowstone star Kevin Costner and the Royals have in common? They are all staring back at me, with a cowboy hat on their head or in hand. I am at the historic cowboy hatter Smithbilt in Calgary, Canada, an energy sector-fuelled city of 1.4 million famed for its cowboy roots, and the boot-stomping, liquid courage-fuelled rodeo and music festival it throws each July to celebrate them. When foreign dignitaries come to town, it is customary to “white hat” them. Which brings me to Smithbilt, the milliner credited with inventing the city’s iconic white brim in 1946.
As I take in this unlikely crew of actors, politicians and even an astronaut pictured on the company’s wall of fame, Master Hatter Cody Harrison, a softly-spoken but solid gentleman who says things like “fer sure” and sets cowboy hats on fire using alcohol to burn off any stray hairs, regales me with tales of Smithbilt past.
“Pretty much any Western film shot in Canada got their hats from us,” he says, matter-of-factly. This includes Legends of the Fall, almost every season of Fargo and even HBO’s apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us (all of which were filmed locally).
But I, as a born-and-raised Calgarian living in London, am curious about the city’s royal connections. You see, for people of such polite society, they seem to be quite fond of Calgary – a salt-of-the-earth prairie city built by hardy pioneers and raised-on-the-land indigenous nations, where the royal treatment is less white linens and fine china and more showing visitors how to let their hair down and yeehaw.
Harrison brings my attention to a photo of Prince Philip in a white hat from July 1959. He and Queen Elizabeth were in town to kick off the Stampede, and though she wasn’t tempted to top her pristine floral dress with a white Smithbilt, Philip soon got into the swing of things, sitting in the front row at the rodeo looking like a Savile Row-suited John Wayne. Afterwards, in the backyard of a local judge’s home, a menu of great culinary refinement awaited them: barbecued prime rib of beef, buttered buns and Western-style beans. Plus coffee, if you drank it, and mints for dessert.
Informal as it may have been, it seems likely that the young couple rated their experience in the unpretentious city. Two of their sons, the nowKing Charles and his now-disgraced brother Andrew went on to visit in 1977, their eyes glinting with mischief as they peered up from beneath the brims of their white cowboy hats.
In 2011, the now-Prince and Princess of Wales visited on their honeymoon tour of Canada, both cutting youthful, strong, ready-to-work-on-the-farm figures in their cowboy duds. And on a perhaps more infamous occasion, Prince Harry sauntered into town in 2007 with the military gang and visited an infamous local nightclub – called Cowboys, its slogan reads “the most fun you can have with your boots on”.
With direct flights from Heathrow, Calgary is a breeze to access. However, visitors often overlook the city and treat it as a mere stopover on the way to nearby Banff and Lake Louise. But with its buzzing live music venues, the best barbecue this side of Texas and locals so friendly you have to assume it is because of all the fresh air they are breathing, it is worth stopping in for a day or two en route to the mountains.
Don’t get me wrong – Calgary isn’t some rinky-dink Western frontier town. It is a multicultural modern city with hipster coffee shops and small plate restaurants, just like the rest of them. But don’t be surprised if you catch a few pairs of heeled boots poking out from the suits you see walking among the skyscrapers. It is nicknamed “Cowtown” for a reason.
Regardless of whether you come for the Stampede rodeo in July or a shoulder season jaunt, here’s how to unleash your inner cowboy or girl in Calgary – and where to find the best spots to get the Royal treatment.