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Haskaynes throw support behind Rosebud expansion

    Rural roots run deep in Alberta, just ask Dick and Lois Haskayne.
    With a $100,000 commitment to the new Rosebud Theatre expansion project in Rosebud, the noted Calgary philanthropists are thrilled to be investing in the future of a community where they have roots.
    Lois Haskayne (nee Kenney) grew up west of Rosebud in the hamlet of Redland, and has fond memories of church, school, families and community events in Rosebud. A little further south in the Town of Gleichen, Dick Haskayne honed his business basics working in his father’s butcher shop.
    Throughout their lives, the Haskaynes have supported arts and education initiatives.
    “The arts, music, drama, poetry, dance and prose are food for the soul,” said Lois. “Without it, we become a society searching for the meaning of our lives and never finding it. Rosebud School of the Arts provides this food for all who care, support and participate. We are proud to be a part of this wonderful school.”
    Rosebud Centre is a 10,000 square foot dining, shopping and meeting/convention space expansion to the current Mercantile Dining Room. The architectural design of an old-time bank and livery stable is in keeping with the living heritage values of Rosebud. The facility will be an integral part of Rosebud’s renowned dining and theatre experience, the revenues of which help support the education and training of theatre artists from across Canada.
    According to executive director of Rosebud Theatre Bob Davis, the total cost of the project is $5 million, of which just more than $4 million has been raised.
    “We’ve set a goal to raise the remaining $1 million by the end of 2011. This announcement is a big step towards reaching that goal,” said Davis.
    As an impetus for others who share their passion for rural community development, the arts, and education, the Haskayne pledge is designed as a matching gift. For every privately donated dollar donated to the project, the amount will be matched, (or doubled) up to $100,000.
    For more information on how to make a pledge or support Rosebud, contact Davis at 403-677-2350 or at bobd@rosebudtheatre.com.

Red Deer river tubers’ three hour tour takes wrong turn

    The Drumheller Fire Department took two area youths to safety after a rafting excursion on the Red Deer River hit some waves.
     On Sunday, June 13, shortly before 10 p.m. two males, ages 17 and 18, were reported missing. The last sighting was at about 5 p.m when the pair launched near the Morrin Bridge, with plans to tube to the Bleriot Ferry.
    The mother of one of the individuals received a text message indicating they were having difficulty and going to shore.
    No further communication was received, and any attempts to contact the two tubers failed.
    The Drumheller Fire Department was contacted, and launched their rescue boat and began a search of the water and shoreline. The operation was risky because of high water levels, the darkness and high amounts of debris floating in the river.
    The two were located along the river bank at about 2:20 a.m. and were unharmed.

Largest documented dinosaur graveyard unearthed in Badlands

   The largest dinosaur bonebed ever unearthed is providing evidence that the dinosaurs were wiped out in catastropic coastal storms, new findings published this month report.
   A bonebed containing thousands of Centrosaurus apertus, a horned relative to Triceratops as been found near Hilda, 50 kilometres north of Medicine Hat.
   “Data from this mega bonebed provide pretty clear evidence that these, and other dinosaurs, were routinely wiped out by catastrophic tropical storms that flooded what was once a coastal lowland here in Alberta, 76 million years ago,” says David Eberth, Senior Research Scientist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the lead author on the study and one of New Perspectives On Horned Dinosaurs, which published the findings this month.
   Covering an area of at least 2.3 square kilometres (the size of 280 football fields), the Centrosaurus beds aren’t new findings in Alberta, but is the largest yet discovered.
   The massive deathbeds of the beasts help paint a picture of the prehistoric coastal landscape that existed in Alberta was submerged in water.
   This is seen as probably leaving the dinosaurs with no high ground to escape the floods, that can be compared to the floods Bangladesh experience every year.
   “It’s unlikely that these animals could tread water for very long, so the scale of the carnage must have been breathtaking,” says Eberth.
   “The evidence suggests that after the flood, dinosaur scavengers trampled and smashed bones in their attempt to feast on the rotting remains.”
   The mega bonebed also helps explain why dinosaurs are so abundant in Alberta’s Badlands, and also gives clues that there was in fact dinosaurs that herded in large numbers.
   The Tyrrell estimates that the number of dinosaurs in the area could be in the high hundreds to low thousands.
   According to the team, coastal plain floods, like those that afflict modern Bangladesh, occur on a geographic scale that is so vast that they often kill large varieties and numbers of the larger terrestrial animals, regardless of whether they live solitary lives or spend their time in large herds.
   “Because of their size and the scale of the flooding, dinosaurs could not escape the coastal floodwaters and would have been killed in large numbers. In contrast, fish, small reptiles, mammals, and birds may have been able to escape such seasonal catastrophes by retreating to quiet water areas, the safety of trees and burrows, or simply by flying away.”
“We’ve known about the Hilda mega bonebed since the late 1990’s, but the complexities of the project prevented us from documenting and publishing on it for almost 10 years.”

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