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Howard Douglas, commissioner of Dominion parks, was in town several days last week completing arrangements for the reception of the buffalo in the Buffalo park near town.
Mr. Douglas has just been inspecting the herd in the Elk Island park near Lamont and arranging for the shipment of 350 of the herd to the park at this place.
When asked when the buffalo would arrive here, Mr. Douglas stated that he had just received a letter from Pablo, who said that all the buffalo, over 400 head, would be in Canada by May 15th, and Mr. Douglas was confident that Pablo would be able to fulfill his contract with the Dominion government.
In the course of a few days an army of cowboys under the personal supervision of Mr. Pablo will commence the last round-up of the shaggy beasts.
The country in which the animals are located is a series of mountains and foothills dotted thickly with chapparel and sage brush.
Once the buffalo are located they will be driven into a large "V" shaped corral and held there until all are within the enclosure.
In the course of time it is hoped they will be gathered in a small enclosure, and then singly, they will be driven into a loading chute at the bottom of which is the heavy cage in which they will be transported over the hills to the railway station, 35 miles distant.
Forty-two of these wagons have been especially constructed for this work and the loading will take at least three weeks.
The wagons are constructed of heavy oak timber resembling railway ties, and each without its load of freight weighs in the neighborhood of 2,500 pounds and will need six horses to pull it between the corral and the railway station.
At Ravalli, the animals will be loaded into special cars on the Northern Pacific railway and will start on their long journey. The special train will be made up of at least thirty-five specially constructed cars, each divided into separate compartments, and strongly reinforced to prevent any possiblity of escape. From Ravalli the train will proceed to Lethbridge where it will be laid over for a couple of hours to allow the attendants to feed the animals which will be removed from their cages.
From Lethbridge the train will go over the C. P. R. to Regina, where it will be transferred to the Canadian Northern, thence to Saskatoon, where the last change is made to the G. T. P. on which the train will pass to Wainwright.
When the train arrives here the animals will be unloaded into a chute 100 feet in width, twenty-eight feet high and one and a half miles long, extending from the town to Battle River Park, which embraces some 110,000 acres. When this last shipment from the States is concluded, counting the calves, it is estimated that Canada will be the possessor of at least 900 buffalo.
From here Mr. Douglas will go to Montana to be present when the buffalo are loaded and accompany them to their new home. The same cars will be used for the transportation of the Lamont and Banff herds as they are most convenient, having separate doors in the roof for the feeding of each animal.
Ed. Ellis, the supt. of the Buffalo park is at present engaging cowponies to be used at the park when the unloading takes place.
It is expected that the town will be flooded with visitors when the train arrives to be present at the unloading of the buffalo.