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Calgary History
The land surrounding the forks of the Elbow and Bow Rivers was the home of the Blackfoot Nation (approximately 10,000 Sarcee, Blood, Peigan, and Blackfoot people). Between 1840 and 1866 American trading parties made seasonal forays into the Bow River Country, collecting Buffalo & Wolf hides and furs and returning to their permanent forts on the Missouri River in Montana Territory.
After 1866, when they began to trade whiskey for furs, six American whiskey posts were constructed, Fred Kanouse's Elbow River Post being the closest structure, located three miles upstream from the Bow in 1871.
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With the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, the I.G. Baker Co., and the
Hudson Bay Company, in late August 1875, a civilian settlement was established east
of the Elbow River. This consisted of the Bow River Post, constructed by the Hudson
Bay Company's Metis employees, and a number of one-room log shanties (2 of which
still exist in good condition in Inglewood community today: the Hunt House and the
Calgary Brewery Shanty). |
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The Canadian Pacific Railway arrived on August 28, 1883 and by the end of the
year 60 tents and wooden structures existed in the booming community to the east of the
Elbow River. In 1884 Section 15, a square mile of land was transferred to the CP Railway
who laid out it's rail town site west of the Elbow on January 14th, 1884. Over the
next three months the majority of the population put their buildings on skids and
moved them west across the frozen Elbow River, to today's downtown core.
On November 7, 1884 Calgary was incorporated as a town. On November 7, 1886, fire burned
four hotels, three warehouses and four stores. Sandstone quarried from the Paskapoo
formation was used to build the major structures after the fire and Calgary became
known as "The Sandstone City." Calgary expanded steadily, incorporating as a city
January 1, 1894. |
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