From the life of a slave to a living legend: How John Ware left his indelible mark on Alberta

This podcast originally aired in 2017. Enjoy it again, or for the first time,in celebration Black History Month.

For more ways to celebrate, check out our list of events, books and more.

They say there wasn't a horse John Ware couldn't ride.

They say he could walk across an entire pen of cattle on the backs of the steers.

They even say he discovered an oil field one day by flicking a match over his shoulder.

Yes, the tall tales abound. But the real story iseven better.

Or at least, more human.

John Ware didn't talk much about his past butit's believed he was born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, the second-youngest of 11 children.

Growing up, the life of a slave was all he knew.

But his world changed in 1865, whenslavery was abolished. At age 20, he found himself a free man.

Ware headed west, in search of a new life one he built, against all odds, in Alberta.

Starting as a cowhand, he won the respect of his peers through his grit, determination and unmatched skill.

Before long, he had started a family and bought a ranch of his own.

And he never looked back.

This is Episode 4ofHeroes, Hustlers and Horsemen, a five-partpodcastseriesfrom CBC Calgary about real people who lived in southern Alberta around the time of confederation and a few decades beyond.

The storiesaren't of the Heritage Minute variety. Theseare the whisky-soaked, down and dusty, gun-slinging kinds of stories they leave out in school.

We'll meet rogues and rebels, bold visionaries with big blind spots, the notorious and the opportunistic, thepeople who gave rein to their ambitions and passions and those whochose to buck the herd.