Rocky Mountain Rail

Calgary, Alberta

Calgary  is the largest city in the Province of Alberta,Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city is located in the Grassland region of Alberta.

In 2006, the City of Calgary had a population of 988,193 making it the third largest municipality in the country and largest in Alberta. The entire metropolitan area had a 2006 population of 1,079,310, making it the fifth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. In 2009, Calgary's metropolitan population was estimated at 1,230,248, raising its rank to fourth-largest CMA in Canada.

Before the Calgary area was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. In 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was the first recorded European to visit the area, and John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. The native way of life remained relatively unchanged until the late 1870s, when Europeans, together with natives, hunted the buffalo to near-extinction.

The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP). The NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from U.S. whiskey traders, and to protect the fur trade. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem-A. Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. It was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. While there is some disagreement on the naming of the town, the Museum on the Isle of Mull explains that kald and gart are similar Old Norse words, meaning 'cold' and 'garden', that were likely used when named by the Vikings who inhabited the Inner Hebrides. Alternatively, the name might come from the Gaelic, Cala ghearraidh, meaning 'beach of the meadow (pasture)'.

With its inception in 1885, Banff National Park slowly grew to become an international tourist attraction, along with the Banff Springs Hotel. At first, the main access to the park was by the Canadian Pacific Railway, who built the Banff Springs Hotel, and the CPR heavily promoted tourism to the area. Today, because it has the closest airport, Calgary is the main staging point for people destined for the park.

The Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on Sunday, Nov. 7, 1886. 14 buildings were razed and losses estimated at $103,200. Nobody was killed or injured. To ensure this would never happen again, city officials drafted a law that all large down-town buildings were to be built with Paskapoo sandstone.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883 and a rail station was constructed, Calgary began to grow into an important commercial and agricultural centre. The Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters are located in Calgary today. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884 and elected its first mayor, George Murdoch. In 1894, it was incorporated as "The City of Calgary" in what was then the North-West Territories.  After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost (up to 100,000 acres for one cent per acre per year). As a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub, Calgary quickly became the centre of Canada's cattle marketing and meatpacking industries.

Between 1896 and 1914 settlers from all over the world poured into the area in response to the offer of free "homestead" land. Agriculture and ranching became key components of the local economy, shaping the future of Calgary for years to come. The world famous Calgary Stampede, still held annually in July, grew from a small agricultural show and rodeo started in 1912 by four wealthy ranchers to "the greatest outdoor show on earth".

Oil was first discovered in Alberta in 1902, but it did not become a significant industry in the province until 1947 when huge reserves of it were discovered. Calgary quickly found itself at the centre of the ensuing oil boom. The city's economy grew when oil prices increased with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The population increased by 272,000 in the eighteen years between 1971 (403,000) and 1989 (675,000) and another 345,000 in the next eighteen years (to 1,020,000 in 2007). During these boom years, skyscrapers were constructed and the relatively low-rise down-town quickly became dense with tall buildings, a trend that continues to this day.

Calgary's economy was so closely tied to the oil industry that the city's boom peaked with the average annual price of oil in 1981. The subsequent drop in oil prices were cited by industry as reasons for a collapse in the oil industry and consequently the overall Calgary economy. However, low oil prices prevented a full recovery until the 1990s.

With the energy sector employing a huge number of Calgarians, the fallout from the economic slump of the early 1980s was understandably significant, and the unemployment rate soared. By the end of the decade, however, the economy was in recovery. Calgary quickly realized that it could not afford to put so much emphasis on oil and gas, and the city has since become much more diverse, both economically and culturally. The period during this recession marked Calgary's transition from a mid-sized and relatively nondescript prairie city into a major cosmopolitan and diverse centre. This transition culminated in February 1988, when the city hosted the XV Olympic Winter Games. The success of these games essentially put the city on the world stage.

Thanks in part to escalating oil prices, the economy in Calgary and Alberta was booming until the end of 2008, and the region of nearly 1.1 million people was the fastest growing economy in the country. While the oil and gas industry comprise an important part of the economy, the city has invested a great deal into other areas such as tourism and high-tech manufacturing. Over 3.1 million people now visit the city annually for its many festivals and attractions, especially the Calgary Stampede. The nearby mountain resort towns of Banff, Lake Louise, and Canmore are also becoming increasingly popular with tourists, and are bringing people into Calgary as a result. Other modern industries include light manufacturing, high-tech, film, e-commerce, transportation, and services. The city has ranked highly  in quality of life surveys: 25th in 2006, 24th in 2007, 25th in 2008, 26th in 2009 and 28th in the 2010 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, and 5th best city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Calgary ranked as the world's cleanest city by Forbes Magazine in 2007. Mercer also ranked the city as the world's first-placed eco-city for 2010.

Unfortunately this now brings us to the end of our trip, I do hope that you have had a great time and that you are taking home many memories from your time here in the Canadian Rockies, happy travels, and safe journeys.