A cattle drive is when people put steering wheels on cows and drive them down the street! No not really. That would be a funny sight though! Because cattle were often purchased from the big ranches in Montana or even further away, huge herds would need to be driven, by people on horseback, across miles of mountains and prairie before reaching southern Alberta.
Generally, the Cattle Drive would follow the same route as had the early traders and explorers. Eventually called the Macleod Trail, the lower part of the Great North Trail went from Ft. Benton in Montana north and west, crossing the border near Coutts, past Lethbridge and on to Ft. Macleod.
