“Travelling as horseback people was a way of life for Native and M茅tis women living nomadically with their families in the Rocky Mountains,” said Feddema-Leonard.
“Later, and prior to World War I, a small number of affluent women afforded the services of packhorse outfitters to guide them into unexplored areas of the Canadian Rockies. With the advent of the Second World War, there was a birth of feminism, and women began participating in non-traditional roles, including careers in the mountain wilderness. Many were trying to survive the post-depression era, etching a living off the land, while others were adventurers seeking a sense of freedom.
“Most of these women lived ‘outside the box’ and were visionaries of their time. These explorers shed society’s expectations and followed their dreams, becoming more of ‘who they were’ in a landscape they loved.
“I chose Ishbel (Cochrane) as one of the main characters in both the book and the movie because of her outstanding ability as a horsewoman and mountain woman. Few women have achieved what she did. Her mother Sophia and sister Margie (Duncan) were also skilled women of the Rockies, travelling where few have ventured.
“I have a great deal of admiration and respect for these amazing women, who travelled the trails before me. Today’s modern generations of women face their own challenges to travel these same trails.”
Roy and Sophia Hargreaves, Cochrane’s parents, raised her on the Mount Robson Ranch at the foot of Mount Robson. Her dad Roy and his brothers operated an internationally known outfit in their day in what is now Jasper National Park and Willmore Wilderness Park. Cochrane grew up on horseback and went on her first trip to Berg Lake when she was only four years old. From an early age on, both Cochrane and her sister accompanied their dad and uncle Chuck Chesser on “Range” trips.
The area called “The Range” was the wintering grounds for the Hargreaves horses, located 90 miles north of the Hargreaves’ home place at Mount Robson, and required travelling by trail along the Smoky River towards Grande Cache. Roy Hargreaves, who had no sons, taught his wife and two daughters how to round up and haze 100 head of horses and lead them back to the Robson Ranch.
In June 1946, Cochrane married Murray Cochrane, who worked for Roy Hargreaves as a guide on hunting trips. After the Second World War, Murray Cochrane outfitted in the Willmore area using Roy Hargreaves’s outfit. Ishbel Cochrane spent the fall after her marriage with her husband on the trail and in camp while pregnant with their first child. Murray and Ishbel Cochrane ended up having six kids, Margie, Art, Les, Malcolm (Mac), Louise and Russell.
“It couldn’t have been a better place to grow up, riding horses in the back country from the head of the Beaver to Maligne Lake,” said Cochrane’s son Mac.
“I started out at 12 years old, horse wrangling on summer trips. My first trip was from Meadow Creek to Maligne Lake.
Mom managed the ranch and the Berg Lake Chalet. It was just a way of life for her, a natural life for an outfitter’s daughter and wife. She just loved the trail.”
“Women of Willmore Wilderness” shares the stories of women past and present as they reveal how their experiences in mountain culture deeply inspired them, and highlights the day-to-day lives and adventures of courageous, resourceful women through time.
The book will be ready for the book launch and film premier at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff on April 4 at 7 p.m. Visit for more information.
Cochrane currently resides in Jasper.
