Calrossie Highland Piper was one of the bulls that the McGillvary's talked about , when I visited with them. They told some very amusing stories of Sandy Cross and his visits to Scotland. Sandy was a real character, and a man that I really never got to know until he was getting on in life. I remember several visits to Rothney when I was quite young but it was usually the farm manager that toured us around.
When Sandy was getting older, he phoned me one day and asked if I would come to Calgary as he wanted to talk to me. He gave me no indication what this was about, so I talked with my dad and he told me I better jump on a plane and go out. I booked an early morning flight and arrived at Calgary about 7:30 AM. I had booked a return flight for 5 PM but when my flight was supposed to be leaving, we still have not discussed anything or seen any cattle. Sandy just drove around and told me story after story. He told me that there was four years in his life that he had no memory of, but from his records he could tell that he had been around the world three times in that period of time.( Sandy owned Calgary Brewery, which was not a good thing to own when you were an acoholic!) I ended up staying with Sandy and Ann for another day, and we had a great time.
The reason Sandy wanted to visit with me, was that he wanted to sell me his entire herd and he was willing to sell them at $300 per cow. The main problem was that there was over 300 cows and I did not want 300 cows and did not have feed, pasture or money to buy 300 cows.We were running over 300 cows ourselves at the time. He told me to get that price I had to take all the cows, and if I split more than 5 cows off, the price would then be $600 per cow for the remainder of them. I politely turned down his offer. The next fall, I happened to see Sandy at Agribition, and he asked me why I had not purchased the cows? I told him I did not have the money to buy them and I did not have the feed I would need to winter them. He said" why didn't you say something to me? I certainly didn't need the money right away, and I certainly could have wintered them for you. " I happen to know the man who purchased the cows and he agreed to purchase the herd if Sandy would keep them until spring. When spring arrived, the cattle markets had improved and he sold about 1/2 the cows in some local bred cow sales and virtually paid for the other 150 head that he then shipped to his ranch.
The Rothney / Sandy Cross story could be made into a great movie. The Glenbow museum in Calgary has many of Sandy Cross 's artifacts including all his registration papers for his Shorthorn, Galloway and Luing cattle from 1947 to 1993. All his farm accounting books, financial statements for the ranch and cattle inventories and many other of his farm related artifacts are at the Glenbow. Some of these are available records are available on the internet.
There are many more stories that could be told about Sandy Cross. He did not marry until he was in his 70s and he found a wonderful lady who changed his life. When Sandy asked Ann to marry him, she said she would only consider it if he stopped drinking. He never had another drink of alcohol from that day forward. The Rothney Ranch was 7 miles by 7 miles in size in a block, and the city of Calgary was getting closer and closer and this was a major concern to Sandy and Ann. They did not want their beloved ranch covered with pavement and homes, so the formed a conservary and gifted a large part of the ranch to the Alberta government with the condition that it be retained as a nature conservatory area. If this had not been done there is no doubt that this beautiful ranch would now be an urban part of Calgary. I can not even imagine what that land would be worth today, but I am guessing it would be in the Billions.
