Nine Albertans have recently been awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence, including one person living in the Longview area.
John Scott owns a ranch near Longview and has been a staple in the Alberta movie industry for decades, but he says he isn't sure why he won the award.
"I just kind of found out [Tuesday] that I've won the Order of Excellence, which is a high award for Alberta. And just honoured to win it," Scott explains. "I've been so busy, I just haven't had time to absorb everything that goes with it."
He says he found out about the award because people kept phoning him, because they had read it in a newspaper.
Currently, he is busy working on a TV show and didn't have the time to read the paper himself.
"So, I just got a call, and people were starting to congratulate me on it."
The Alberta Order of Excellence recognizes exceptional service and celebrates those individuals whose leadership, innovation, and dedication who have helped to shape the province's identity and strengthen its future.
While Scott doesn't know exactly why he was chosen for this award, he says it's probably for the promotion of the motion picture business in Alberta, as he has become known as one of the go-to guys for Westerns.
"I've got a large selection of horses and period tac,k and we've got three Western sets on the ranch," Scott says. "Myself and Albertina Farms and CL Ranch won a big award out of Cannes, France, a couple of years ago for the Best Standing Sets in North America."
On top of that, he won a Top 7 Over 70 award several years ago.
Scott has been in the movie industry for over 50 years, beginning with Little Big Man, which came out in 1970 and stars Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway.
Over the years, John Scott's ranch has been used in numerous films, including ones that have won Academy Awards.
"We've had seven Academy Award-winning pictures made here, such as Days of Heaven, Unforgiven, Legends of the Fall, Jesse James, Shanghai Noon, Brokeback Mountain, Revenant. And then I went to New Zealand and worked on The Lord of the Rings."
According to Scott, Alberta is the only Canadian province to state that they have won that many Academy Award pictures.
He says that Legends of the Fall was one of his favourite movies that he has worked on.
"I spent four and a half years with the director helping him get it made. And he spent seven and a half years."
Scott has been on that ranch his whole life.
His grandfather homesteaded in 1904, and then in 1975, Scott bought the property himself.
On his ranch, they run a cow-calf operation and keep quite a few bison and lots of horses for the movie business.
In the movie business, Scott works as a head wrangler, but he has also worked as a stunt coordinator, stuntman, wrangler, and as a location man.
He got into the film industry through the rodeo industry.
"Some of the guys I met came up here to do that picture called Little Big Man, and they wanted me to help them put some riders and horses together on it. That's what I did, and that was my first take at the movie business, and I thought it was great."
Scott says he has worked on over 200 films in his life.
The ceremony for the Alberta Order of Excellence will be held in Edmonton in October.
Even though he doesn't know quite yet why he won the award, he says it's humbling to be nominated and voted upon by his peers.
"It's quite the honour."
To see the full list of those awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence this year, click here.