Pekisko is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located in the

Foothills County Foothills County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada adjacent to the south side of Calgary in Census Division No. 6. Despite sharing a common border with the City of Calgary, it does not form part of the Calgary census metropo ...

, east of the junction of Cowboy Trail and Highway 540, south of High River and south of Longview. It lies in the Canadian Rockies foothills, north of the Highwood River, at an elevation of , and is the centre of the Pekisko

Rangeland Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savanna ...

, an area of livestock grazing and agriculture. Oil and gas is an increasing part of the economy. The name Pekisko originates from the

Blackfoot language The Blackfoot language, also called Niitsi'powahsin () or Siksiká ( ; , ), is an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot Confederacy, Blackfoot or people, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North Americ ...

, meaning ''rolling foothills''. The Pekisko Formation ( Mississippian

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

) of the Rundle Group was named after this community. A hybrid of ''Pisum sativum'' (pea) was also named Pekisko after this area.

Pekisko area ranches

EP Ranch Prince of Wales George Lane Archie McLean NB-H-16-406

Pekisko is ranching country and two famous ranches operated there for decades: the Bar-U Ranch, owned by Calgary Stampede founder George Lane, and the E.P. Ranch (formerly the Bedingfeld Ranch). After touring Canada in 1919, the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

bought the Bedingfeld cattle ranch, which had been founded in 1886 by Mrs. Bedingfeld, a widow of a British army officer who died in India. The ranch became known as the Prince of Wales Ranch or the E.P. Ranch. The E.P. brand used on the ranch stood for "Edward Prince". The prince briefly became King of the United Kingdom and King of Canada in 1936. In 1925, cowboy movie star Hoot Gibson was filmed in scenes at the E.P. Ranch as part of the Hollywood movie ''The Calgary Stampede''.

Climate

According to the 1971–2000 normals with the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system, Pekisko has a firmly subarctic climate, or as lower elevations nearby have

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

s, a subalpine climate (''Dfc''). Like other subpolar climates, summers are short and lukewarm, but while typically sub-freezing, winters average out to be fairly mild, being considered "maritime subarctic" (''Eo'') according to the Trewartha climate classification system. Being on the immediate

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

side of the Canadian Rockies, Chinook ( Föhn) winds can sometimes drive winter temperatures well above freezing—during a particularly extreme event on 31 January 1906, the temperature rose to an exceptional , possibly the highest January temperature ever recorded at such a high latitude. Like at lower elevations in the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

, precipitation peaks in late spring and summer, but Pekisko experiences significantly more than those elevations due to the orographic effect, and it is also significantly less seasonal.

References

External links

Pekisko Group
(Rangeland Conservation) {{Geographic location , Centre = Pekisko , North = Longview , Northeast = High River , East = Nanton , Southeast = Stavely , South = Chain Lakes Provincial Park , Southwest = Canadian Rockies , West = Bighorn Highway , Northwest =

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country (abbreviated: K-Country) is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Rocky Mountain Foothills, foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Its western edge borders Banff National Park and the Alberta-Br ...

Localities in Foothills County