The Land Around
The Sheep River & Diamond Valley.
The Sheep River
A wild trout river drawn from the Rockies.
The Sheep River rises in the Highwood Range of Kananaskis Country and runs east through the Sheep River Provincial Park before threading the foothills below Diamond Valley. Cold, clear, and famously productive, its riffles and pools hold native cutthroat, rainbow, and brown trout — the river is a fixture of Alberta's fly-fishing tradition.
Legacy Sky Ranch enjoys approximately one mile of private riverfront, supplemented by Lineham Creek as it joins the Sheep along the property's northern boundary. The forested river bottom is corridor and cover for elk, mule deer, whitetail, black bear, and turkey — wildlife the owners describe as constant company.
Diamond Valley · Alberta
A foothills town with quiet sophistication.
Five kilometres from the ranch lies Diamond Valley, the foothills town formed in 2023 from Black Diamond and historic Turner Valley — known for its galleries, farm-to-table restaurants, and proximity to both Kananaskis and the Bar U National Historic Ranch.
Okotoks is twenty-two kilometres to the east and Claresholm lies to the south; Calgary is roughly an hour to the northeast, Banff and Canmore an easy day's drive west, and the U.S. border at Carway just two and a half hours south. Mainly paved access, with cellular coverage across the property.
To the northeast, the eroded hoodoos of the Badlands and the Royal Tyrrell Museum at Drumheller make an easy country day trip — dinosaur country, ranch country, and the Rockies all within the same drive.
Diamond Valley
5 km
Okotoks
22 km
Kananaskis Country
10 km
Calgary city centre
~ 60 km
YYC International
~ 75 km
Claresholm
~ 109 km
Drumheller & the Badlands
~ 190 km
Carway, U.S. border
~ 2.5 hrs
A History Written in Flight
The legacy of Jack Pierce.
John Michael "Jack" Pierce · 1924 – 1991
For decades, this land was home to John Michael "Jack" Pierce — aviator, North Sea oil developer, and chairman and CEO of Ranger Oil Ltd. of Calgary, which he built from a 1954 Wyoming start-up into an international operator. A wartime RAF Ferry Command pilot and McGill geology graduate, Pierce flew his own aircraft from this ranch into Calgary to work — the private airstrip is part of that legacy.
On June 8, 1991, Jack Pierce died at age 67 while on a cattle round-up on the ranch he loved.
Carried on by Greg Noval.
A Stewardship Continued
The ranch passed into the hands of Greg Noval — founder and longtime chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in the world, and later founder of Canadian 88 Energy. Under Noval's ownership the working character of the property was not only preserved but deepened, and he carried on the legacy of this land until his death.
Noval followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, Wilf Edgar — a foundational figure in the Canadian Hereford Association and operator of the famed Little Red Deer Hereford Farm at Innisfail — by continuing a purebred Hereford breeding program on the ranch, keeping a multi-generational Alberta cattle tradition alive in the Sheep River valley.
He shared Pierce's love of aviation, keeping multiple aircraft on the property and commuting to Calgary by helicopter to run his oil and gas operations — the airstrip, hangar, and helipad all in active use. Between the cattle, the cockpit, and the boardroom, Noval embodied the same rare combination of rancher, aviator, and oilman that has defined this place for nearly half a century.
A sought-after film location.
Scenery on Screen
The ranch's scenery — river bottom, foothills, working yard, and the Rocky Mountain front beyond — has made it a regular location for film and television production. A large parking pad was built at the hangar specifically to accommodate production crews, alongside upgraded access for trucks, trailers, and equipment staging.
The property has hosted recurring episodes of Heartland, served as a main location for Hallmark's Ride series, and appeared in Travel Alberta commercials — among many other productions drawn here by the landscape and the working ranch character.
The Setting
Where the prairies fold into the Rockies — and the river bends through your land.
Schedule a private tour of the region.
Renata can coordinate ranch viewings alongside time in Diamond Valley, Kananaskis, and Calgary.