by Bonnie Danylyshen
If you are planning on spending some vacation time in East Central Alberta you might want to check out the Tour Destination Region of the Trail of the Buffalo.
Bordered by the Saskatchewan border on the east, and Highways 14 to the north, 21 to the west and 9 to the south, there is more than enough space for everyone.
You can visit historical attractions like an oil lamp museum, or spend time exploring buffalo jumps and teepee rings. There are antique shops, railway excursions and archeological sites. You can go on a bluebird trail, and view historical murals.
There are eight provincial parks and Recreational Areas in this vast expanse. The communities are numerous. Almost all of them boast at least one local campground close by and there is easy access to others in their immediate vicinities.
There are of course the usual accomodations you would find in any area of the province, ranging from Bed and Breakfasts to Motor Inns to small town hotels.

Beginnings
From the beginning The Trail of the Buffalo Tourism Association had its roots in East Central Alberta.
“When the Battle River Tourism Association closed its door there were people in the area who said, ‘we can’t go without anything’, so the Trail of the Buffalo was loosely organized,” said Tourism Marketing Co-ordinator Cindy Heidecker.
People like Sandra King, from Consort and Bob Willis from Stettler were in on the formation right from the start in 2001.
“Soon afterwards Wainwright jumped on board and then Oyen,” said Heidedecker who started with the organization in 2004.
“It has grown and it has about 26 municipalities within the region,” she said. “A few come and go, a few are not members.”
The organization relies totally on membership fees to operate. Membership in the Trail of the Buffalo costs $150 a year for private or non-profits.
Municipalities with a population greater than 500 would pay $850, $350 for those from 300-500 people and those with a population of less than 300 would be charged a $150 membership fee.
“The government helps with some of the Trade Shows we do every year, but their criteria is that they pay for 50 per cent of the costs and only if it is outside a 100 km radius from our area.
This funding is only available the first time a project takes place. This is the second year that we will attend Rural Routes in Calgary so we will only be eligible for 35 percent of the booth fees.”
Heidecker said that the costs of accomodation, food, travel and booth decoration are not covered by this provincial funding.
“Right now the provincial government is pumping money into projects like the Badlands and promoting it as the second icon of Alberta, with the first being the mountains,” continued Heidecker.
She was positive in her approach, however, and said, “we continue operating, we have a lot to offer here.”

Website
The Trail of the Buffalo recently launched its new website.
Attendees at the Annual General Meeting got a sneak preview of this website on January 19 at the Coronation Community Centre.
“We always promote everyone,” said Cindy Heidecker, “whether they are a member or not.”
Heidecker stated that she can make instant corrections to the site as information is brought to her. She said that the information on the website is reliant on the community representatives.
Heidecker went on to say that she and Sandra King, who had taken the training on website design, hope to develop package tours to put up on the website towards the end of winter or early spring.
Four workshops will be held to get tourism operators together to build these packages.

Marketing
Heidecker noted that the group hoped to do some serious marketing in Saskatchewan and the Northwest States in the next couple of years.
“We got our money,” stated Heidecker. The group had applied for grant monies to assist in their marketing efforts.
Sandra King noted that “doubling our annual budget (with this grant) was no small task”, and thanked Heidecker for all her work.
Keith Brower of Wainwright took over as the new chairman and in accepting the position noted that “tourism in this area has always been undersold and under slung. I’m excited about the launch of our new website.”
“It’s only natural if we do it (tourism marketing) together, we will succeed.”
Jim Klasson Economic Development Officer for Paintearth County remained Vice chair; while Alan Willis of Stettler took over the Treasurer’s position. Directors include Doug Lehman of Oyen, Lynette Nelson, the Economic Development Officer for Special Areas in Consort, Sandra King, Past Chair; Leila Grobel, BRAED (Battle River Alliance for Economic Development) Coordinator and Muriel Frankhanel of Alliance.
Member benefits
“I’m excited about the new website too,” commented Heidecker. She added that when people come on board with their memberships they are given a good promotion on the site with a picture and 25 - 50 words describing who they are and what they do.
“Those who are not members are not left out,” she went on to say. “But I will be honest, when I go to a Trade Show I am going to generally say more about those who are members. There are benefits to memberships.”
In addition to member communities and municipalities Trail of the Buffalo has around 23 partners ranging from a resort style ranch, to Chambers of Commerce, those involved in historical societies and members of the arts and entertainment community.
Zinger’s Music Barn from Coronation is one such partner. Claud and Alan Zinger composed a song for the tourism organization and entertained those at the Annual General Meeing with their original composition.

More involvement
“We have a lot of interest, but we need more industry involved,” said Heidecker. “We need more hotels, more Bed and Breakfasts, more businesses.”
Information about the Trail of the Buffalo can be found at www.albertabuffalotrail.org
The organization has also published a comprehensive visitor’s guide with 44 pages packed full of information on this truly wonderful tourist destination.

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