Alberta Chinooks are noted for their ice-melting winds. Our home overlooking the Bow Valley, with a grandiose view of the Rocky Mountains to the west, has been bombarded with Chinook winds since we moved here over thirty years ago. We have experienced blistering cold, and snow storms in the winter, and hail and rain in the summer. I have a love/hate relationship with Chinooks. I love the fact that the warm, west wind gives us a reprieve from the ice and snow of winter. I hate that with the wind and the ensuing rise and fall of the barometer I get a massive headache. I also hate to see the Chinook winds blow shakes off my roof!

We are dealing with an insurance claim to repair damage to our roof after a terrible hail storm last August. Seeing further damage from strong, blustery winds wreak more damage on our property just adds insult to injury. However, last week with 80 km/ hr winds pummelling our house as well as those around us, it is the loss of Cochrane’s “Grandfather Tree” that has impacted me and the entire community!

It is my wanting to pay homage, to share a sense of connection with Cochrane’s history and its western heritage, that draws me to write about this particular iconic landmark. It has stood as a sentinel long before civilization invaded its space. Considered “young”, if compared to the California Redwoods, the Grandfather Tree, named by local school students, is said to be three hundred years old. Imagine what it has “seen” in three centuries of its existence. If it could speak, what stories could it tell? As a writer, I can’t help but feel inspired. I don’t believe, as some do, that things of nature have souls, but I can appreciate God’s beauty in His Creation. There is awe-inspiring, uniqueness about the tree. From its height, and gnarled tree roots snaking above ground; it is a natural wonder to behold.

Over these many, many years, families, school groups, artists, and photographers have visited the landmark to marvel and capture its unusual appearance. Children have scampered up and around its base and climbed its branches. In hindsight, we should have left it alone, but the tree was impossible not to touch. It was too fascinating not to explore and have an encounter with. If one looks closely at its trunk, some even see a wrinkled “face” glaring at those who visit it.

Unfortunately, over the years, the tree has been showing the distinctive signs of its age. Trying to stave off more damage to its fragile root system due to erosion, the Town of Cochrane recently erected a fence around the tree. People could look, but not touch the mighty white spruce.

It stood the test of time for three centuries but sadly, during the night of January 16th, 2025, the Grandfather tree was finally uprooted by powerful Chinook winds.

A “landmark” is defined as “an object or feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location.” The Grandfather Tree was an iconic landmark in Cochrane. Cochranites are mourning its loss like a “death in the family” with many in the community wanting to memorialize it in some way to preserve its legacy.

I never photographed the tree. I wish I had, but I am thankful many did, because its beauty was unsurpassed. I thank Tim Hall, a local photographer, to allow me the use of his picture.

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT)