OLIVER GOBLE

Tombstone Location:
07th Row from the south
07th Tombstone from the east

Hello. My name is Oliver Goble and I am one of the pioneers from the Cardston area who have strong connections with Waterton Lakes.

I was the eighth of eleven children born to Edwin and Mary Goble who came from Utah. There I was born in 1884.

When I was 16 years old, I came up to Cardston with my parents and five of my siblings. We traveled by covered wagon but also had a freight wagon which carried our supplies and one saddle horse. The arduous trip took six weeks. We crossed into Canada on the old Emigrant Trail near Whiskey Gap. Somehow we missed the Customs officials who were stationed at the Pilling Ranch on the St. Mary’s River. Hunted down by the North West Mounted Police, we were escorted back to the Customs station house where our belongings were searched. We were then allowed to continue on our way.

My wife’s family was Henry and Juliette Bohne who also hailed from Utah. My wife Arletta, born in 1887, was the 15th of 17 children. Arletta, her parents and nine of her siblings made the overland trip to Canada, eventually settling on a homestead near Aetna. The trip was made in 1897 with four covered wagons pulled by eight horses.

Arletta and I were married in 1904. For years I worked as a cowboy on several southern Alberta ranches. We also had a farm in the Glenwood area but faced crop failures on a regular basis.

Arletta and I settled in Waterton Lakes in 1926. We had seven children and our sons included Ken, Frank and Ed. By this era I had picked up carpentry as a trade, working with Ken and Ed on the construction of the Prince of Wales Hotel.

My next employment posting was as the Construction Foreman for the National Park. Kitchen shelters at Bertha and Crypt Lakes were some of my more memorable projects.

Our family residence was a rustic frame cabin located at 218 Waterton Avenue. I leased this lot in 1927 and worked on the house’s construction from 1929 to 1932. Today the cabin remains in family hands.

Ed Goble and his wife, the former Nellie Hunter, purchased a rustic cabin at 208 Evergreen Avenue. They resided there from 1936 until Ed’s death in 1943. A unique landscaping feature in the front yard was a stone fountain. This proved to be a great attraction for bears who loved to cool off in it during the hot summer weather.

Frank Goble and his wife Linnea (the daughter of Erik and Olga Haggland) operated Frank’s Café in downtown Waterton. They purchased the business from Florence “Ma” Nixon for $4,500 in 1941. There were challenges early on due to wartime rationing of food staples like coffee, sugar and butter. Yet the business did very well and became known as “the café with the grizzly” due to their hunting expertise and the vast array of trophy heads on display in the restaurant. They expanded into the motel business in 1957 and retired in the 1970s when they sold out. Frank also was a local historian and had his stories published by the Waterton Natural History Association. He worked on the construction of the Chief Mountain highway during the tough times of the 1930s.

Ken Goble worked for the fish hatchery system at Waterton Lakes.