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Siding 29
Today over 3,000,000
people flock to this out of
the way rail station which is
now commonly referred to as
Banff. This jewel of Canada's
west has risen from its humble
beginnings to become a world
famous tourist destination.
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Banff
National Park Springs to Life
The pleasures of sulphurous, health-restoring
natural hot springs were no secret to the
First Nations people who lived in the Bow
River Valley. But in 1882, they were a source
of amazement and delight to the three Canadian
Pacific Railway workers who stumbled upon
them during a hike in the Rocky Mountains.
Word of the hot springs, just a few kilometres
up the mountain from the Bow (in present
day Banff), spread quickly. Within two years,
the springs were attracting their first
European visitors, and by 1886, the first
rudimentary bathhouse was constructed on
their site. (A series of increasingly sophisticated
plunge baths, swimming pools and steam rooms
followed, with today's version now restored
to its 1930's glory.
Hotel Hot Spot:
News of the hot springs discovery also attracted
William Pearce, Canadian Superintendent
of Mines, in 1885. Pearce convinced the
federal government to establish the Banff
Hot Springs Reserve (soon re-named the Rocky
Mountain Park Reserve.) In 1888, when the
Banff Springs Hotel opened its doors for
the first time, an astonishing 5,000 tourists
travelled by rail to enjoy the waters of
the Cave and Basin Hot Springs.
With the passage
of the National Parks Act in 1930, making
all federal parks national parks, Rocky
Mountain Park became Banff National Park.
Today's park, famous the world over for
its wildlife and mountain scenery, now covers
6,734 square kilometres of territory.
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Photo:
Chief Crowfoot:NAC A134919
A Man of Honour
Respected in his time, immortalized
by artists, Chief Crowfoot (1830-1890)
of the southern Alberta Blackfoot
Nation, faced the perils wrought
by European infiltration with
wisdom and forbearance. Initially
suspicious of police efforts
to rid the region of unscrupulous
whiskey traders, the Chief eventually
recognized the need to protect
his people from the bottle's
scourge. Declaring that land
was more valuable than money,
and that it could not be owned,
Chief Crowfoot nonetheless honoured
a treaty which relinquished
130,000 square kilometres of
territory to the Canadian government.
Fort Calgary
Historic Park
Don the scarlet jacket of a
North-West Mounted Police uniform
and show up for roll call at
the re-creation of Fort Calgary,
circa 1875. At this National
and Provincial historic site,
you can also visit the Interpretive
Centre to hear stories and meet
characters from Calgary's past.
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Bootlegging
on the Bow
The natural rhythm of aboriginal life in
the Bow River Valley began to falter in
the early nineteenth century, with the arrival
of European explorers, Hudson's Bay fur
traders, church missionaries-and the devastating
scourge of smallpox. The buffalo, which
had sustained the indigenous Blackfoot Confederacy
for centuries, had been hunted to near-extinction.
Starvation and disease ravaged the First
Nations population; in 1836, a virulent
smallpox outbreak killed two-thirds of the
Blackfoot, and by 1877, only 255 Sarcee
were left alive.
Land of Lawlessness:
From 1864 to 1874, with the price of beaver
pelts-and the occasional buffalo hide-still
commanding high prices in Europe, American
free traders and rootless veterans from
the American Civil War flooded into southern
Alberta. Trading bootleg whiskey for furs
trapped by downtrodden locals, the American
opportunists spawned a decade of violence
and chaos. Working from unruly trading posts
with names like Fort Whoop-Up and Slide-Out,
they presided over the near-collapse of
the First Nations culture, unchallenged
by any system of law and order.
In 1875, with the
Canadian government fearing further American
domination, the "F" Troop of the
North- West Mounted Police was sent north
from Fort Macleod to stem the insidious
whiskey trade. Over the course of six weeks,
Inspector E. A. Brisebois and fifty of his
men built a mud-chinked, rough log fort
at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers.
Named Fort Calgary, a Gaelic term for "clear
running water," the primitive palisade
became the first building of the modern
city of Calgary.
Home on the Range:
John Ware and Brand 9999
Of all the legendary cattle ranchers who
took advantage of the grazing lands and
railway routes of the Bow River Valley in
the late 1800's, pioneer John Ware is the
most colourful. A former Afro-American slave
who gained his freedom after the Civil War,
Ware followed a cattle drive north to the
Bar U Ranch near High River, Alberta in
1882.
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Hunting for a Name
The
Bow River received its name
not for its curves but from
the bow reeds that grow along
its banks. |
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Ware quickly established
his own small spread on Ware Creek, a tributary
of the Sheep River and a spawning stream
of the Bow. His skill in taming the wildest
of broncos, wrestling the largest of steers,
fighting the toughest of rustlers and surviving
the fiercest of blizzards earned him an
enduring reputation for fearlessness and
integrity. Ware is still known for his cattle
brand 9999.
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