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When Henry Stelfox emigrated to Alberta in the winter of 1906-07, he could hardly have imagined that history would honour him as a successful businessman, an environmental activist, a historian, an advocate for First Nations people and a poet.
Henry considered himself a wanderer, having left his birthplace of England to spend three years in the South African Constabulary before emigrating to Alberta where he briefly homesteaded in the Ponoka area. Henry considered taking a long walking tour of Russia, but his fate was settled when his parents emigrated from England to Lacombe, Alberta.
Henry Stelfox married, settled near Rocky Mountain House and raised nine children. During this period, he once explored the upper reaches of the Clearwater River with his companions and vacationed high up into the wilderness.
Henry was a successful businessman who ran a cattle ranch, a fur buying shop and a real estate office. He also took an avid interest in the wild creatures that filled the forests around Rocky Mountain House. Henry became a Provincial Game Warden, refusing to take any pay for the position, and worked actively to establish the Alberta Fish and Game Association.
As a fur buyer, Henry was well known to the First Nations people, but also called many of them friends. For years and years, at the request of local leaders of the First Nations people, Henry wrote letters to the Federal Department of Indian Affairs and the appropriate provincial officials in Edmonton. Henry travelled to Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa at his own expense when he needed to speak in person on behalf of his friends, who were members of the local Cree and Chippewa bands.
Henry Stelfox was instrumental in creating the three First Nations Reserves west of Rocky Mountain House.
As an amateur historian, Henry Stelfox recorded by hand many of the family histories of the First Nations people who visited him. He also wrote persuasive essays, presented talks to local groups and sent letters to the local newspaper in hopes of changing soil and watershed conservation practices and the treatment of the non-treaty Indians during the hard times of the 1930’s.
Finally, Henry Stelfox was a poet, expressing his love of the natural riches and all the wonderful beauty with which God had blessed Alberta.
This Community Memories exhibit is a tribute to one of Alberta’s most intriguing historical figures, Henry Stelfox.
