Calgary Stampede puts history, western culture on display at new Sam Centre

Sam Centre Opening — Displays at the Calgary Stampede Sam Centre opening in Calgary on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. ARYN TOOMBS / FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY

When the public walks through the doors of the Sam Centre this May, they’ll be entering the first permanent display of the history and legacy of the Calgary Stampede.

Although the official opening of the centre—named after Sam Taylor, one of the original Stampede Midway vendors and father of noted Calgary philanthropist Don Taylor—is on May 29, there was a sneak peek on Wednesday for supporters of the Stampede.

Don Taylor said that the centre’s construction was 13 years in the making, but it was well worth the wait.

“It’s an incredible building and we’re excited to be part of it,” he said.

“I’ve been through it about 10 times during the construction, but we were through it this morning, and it’s very exciting. The exhibits and displays in there, and I encourage everybody to go through the building. It’s part of our history and it’s part of the Alberta and Canadian and Calgary culture, and we should be celebrating that.”

Among the exhibits at the Sam Centre includes a permanent display in the Scown Gallery, which includes interactive displays and artifacts from the history of the Stampede, the Ross Glen Gallery, which will host rotating exhibits—currently the history of Stampede bronzes—and the Stampede sensations 270-degree video exhibit.

The latter projects video of the rodeo and other Stampede experiences throughout the history of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth onto incorporated boards taken from the OH Ranch, near Longview, Alberta.

“Sam Center is a 100-year-in-the-making storytelling gem for our community. It is a space where year-round those of us who are Stampede lifers get to come and be inspired by the stories of our community,” said Christine Leppard, manager of exhibits and experience at the Sam Centre.

“It’s where people who are just getting acquainted or travelling here from around the world, get a taste of the heart of the Calgary community that is embodied in the Stampede every every year.”

Centre to serve Calgarians, Canadians, and the world

The centre was expected to host more than 80,000 people annually, many of whom will be international travellers who come to Calgary to experience the Stampede but don’t make the 10 days on Stampede Park, Leppard said.

“Those of us who work here, get to watch all of the tour buses drive into Stampede all year, and there’s not much to show them. We’re excited now that even if it’s February and it’s snowing, you will come to Sam and you will experience our Stampede sensations, multi-sensory experience,” she said.

“It puts you at the heart of Stampede, and will really shape what you feel about the Stampede and about our community.”

The centre will also be the permanent home of the Stampede curation team, which will store Stampede artifacts from throughout the organization’s history in climate controlled archives.

Among those artifacts are original saddles, including Sam Taylor’s, which will reside in specially-designed storage.

“I think artifacts have a really magical power for us. They exude authenticity, and we like connection with authenticity. They’re a way for us to think about our own stories, think about our place in our community, and now you’ll be able to come here year round and see some of those objects and more importantly be inspired by the stories behind them,” said Leppard.

Telling the stories of people and peoples involved in the Stampede

The Sam Centre has also been designed to celebrate Indigenous participation in the Stampede.

“We have been working with our tipi holders at Elbow River Camp, and with an Elbow River River Camp advisory group from the beginning, listening to the stories that matter to them about Stampede, and reflecting on why every year and for generations, families come and set up their tipis,” Leppard said.

“With their direction and with their advice, we share quite a few stories within this space all throughout Sam Center.”

Visitors are welcomed to the centre by a custom neon sign with welcomes in the languages of the Blackfoot, Stoney Nakoda, and Tsuut’ina peoples.

The storytelling within the centre also extends to others who have for decades been influential in operating the Stampede.

Scooter Korek, Vice President of Client Relations at North American Midway Entertainment, who is responsible for much of the Stampede Midway each year, is one of the Calgarians celebrated in the Scown Gallery.

“Well, I’m flabbergasted really is what I am. It’s been such a great journey here for the last 48 years for me at the Calgary Stampede, and I’m just so proud of this. Being a Calgarian, I’m just so proud that we’re able to tell the Stampede story not just to here in southern Alberta, but to the world,” he said.

“It takes everybody. It takes all those little parts to put together a great Stampede package, that’s for sure. It’s flap jacks downtown, and it’s a Midway, and it’s a rodeo, and it’s every day their own little part. I think that what this museum has done, is salute some of those unsung heroes that helped make the Stampede the international event it has turned into.”