Today, April 17, 2026 marks the 100th birthday of a long-time friend of the National Park Warden Service, Ann Dixon. What a magnificent milestone! And what a wonderful woman!
Throughout her long life, Ann has possessed a wonderful spirit full of strength, endurance and a warm sense of humour. Ann’s connection with the Warden Service began in 1954 when her husband, Fred, was hired as ranch hand at the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch working for ranch foreman Lloyd Waikle. Fred and Ann moved to this remote area of Alberta with their two very young daughters, Connie who was four years old and Peggy who was one. Groceries were purchased “on the cuff” from Knott’s Trading Post in Sundre. Winters were long, and Ann recalls one winter they were trapped for almost four months after a bad winter storm and saw not a single soul during that time.
Ann loved the Ya Ha Tinda, especially in the spring when the valley came alive with newborn foals and the wildlife babies. When Lloyd Waikle retired Fred had become both foreman and ranch hand and was effectively the entire staff at the ranch—a great deal of responsibility for one man but had the help of his silent partner, Ann. Life there was seldom dull. Each spring, Ann cooked for the horseshoers who spent two weeks at the ranch shoeing the horses before they were trailed to Banff. She also earned extra money by recording the daily weather and calling the report into Banff each day on the wall mounted magneto-crank telephone. At another time, she cooked for a survey crew, adding a little more to her savings. Ann would often joke, “I had all this money and nowhere to spend it!”
Fred became a park warden in 1957, and Ann continued to be his “silent partner” a role she played throughout most of Fred’s career. His first posting was in Banff National Park at Saskatchewan Crossing, a remote district where the family lived in a small two-room cabin with no running water and no electricity. A small generator was available, but it was reserved strictly for the two-way radios. The lone outdoor privy had to be shared with the seasonal staff—how Ann envied the engineers at Silverhorn road camp who enjoyed the luxury of an eight-hole toilet. The family’s move in 1961 to British Columbia to the Leanchoil Warden Station in Yoho National Park gave the girls their first opportunity to attend regular school after six years of correspondence lessons supervised by their mother. Ann was delighted to have neighbours and even a store just seven miles away in a small community. After so many years in remote postings, this felt like real civilization.
Fred and Ann’s next move took them to Manitoba to Riding Mountain National Park in 1971 where Fred was stationed at Heron Creek. By this time, Connie and Peggy were both married. Ann quickly noticed the sharp contrast between the landscape there and the mountain parks they had known. The winters were bitterly cold, with heavy snow often whipped by the wind into hard drifts. Winter patrols were carried out using a Bombardier snow machine. In 1974, Fred was transferred once again—this time back to Alberta to Elk Island National Park to the Tawayik District. While stationed in Elk Island, a freak accident occurred in which Fred was gored by a buffalo bull. This was indeed a stressful time for Ann. Despite the severity of the wound, and through a fortunate series of circumstances, Fred survived and spent only ten days in hospital in Fort Saskatchewan.
In 1982, after 27 years in the warden service Fred retired. It was a sad day for Fred and Ann. Ann stated in her book, “When the ties that bound Fred and me to the wardens’ way of life were finally severed, it represented a drastic change in our lives. We realized, we were no longer a vital part of that closely knit dynamic unit.”
In 1985, Banff National Park—Canada’s first national park—celebrated its 100th anniversary. That same year, Ann published her book Silent Partners: Wives of National Park Wardens. The book shares personal stories of the women who truly were the silent partners behind the wardens’ work and is beautifully illustrated by her daughter Peggy. As Ann wrote in the introduction: “Since the beginning and down through the decades, the wives of National Park Wardens have played a very important role in Canadian history. They, along with their husbands, were the pioneers who opened up and settled the virgin land composing National Park territory.”
Maybe because the Ya Ha Tinda was Ann’s first experience with national parks, or perhaps because the wonder and splendor of the Ya Ha Tinda became embedded in her spirit, she always held the ranch close to her heart. Whenever there was a warden service reunion at the ranch, Ann was there. She was determined to attend the 100th Anniversary of the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in 2017, and despite cool temperatures and poor road conditions, she made the trip. Compared to the roads and travel conditions she had experienced in the 1950s while living at the ranch, traveling in a warm vehicle on a well maintained road with no creeks to ford would have seemed luxurious.
The past few years Ann has made her home in Milk River and continues to enjoy life and all its blessings.
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY ANN!
From your Warden Service family.
Happy Birthday Ann. Fred and yourself and daughters always remembered with great affection by Myrna and I.