Calgary history

Before Calgary was settled by white Europeans, it was the domain of the Blackfoot natives, whose presence has been traced back 11,000 years. The first recorded European presence in the region around Calgary took place in 1787, and by 1860 settlers began arriving to hunt buffalo and sell illegal whisky. In response, Canada’s first prime minister sent a troop of Mounties to impose the law and make the prairie suitable for immigration.

As a result of this, the sleepy little trading post of Fort Calgary was born (it was named by Colonel James Macleod after Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull, Scotland). The settlement did not experience much in the way of population growth until the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, and it was not until 1894 that Calgary became a city.

However, 1914 was the year that Calgary experienced its most significant development: the discovery of oil in the Turner Valley, 35km (22 miles) southwest of the city. Overnight, Calgary became a boomtown, attracting settlers and investors and generating massive amounts of money. Additional oil discoveries throughout the century saw continued growth in the city that became the administrative centre for the Canadian oil industry.

As well as being the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary also grew into a tourist destination in its own right. Visitors flocked to take in the city’s burgeoning cowboy culture, expressed every year in the Calgary Stampede (held formally for the first time in 1912). The Rocky Mountains and, in particular, Banff National Park, attracted thousands more who were drawn by the park’s stunning alpine beauty and its famous hotel.

Explosive growth in the 1970s thanks to increasing oil prices saw Calgary’s population boom and skyscrapers go up. As oil prices dropped in the early 1980s however, so did the city’s economic fortunes, and unemployment escalated. It took until the late 1980s for Calgary to recover.

At the same time, the popularity of winter leisure sports (such as downhill skiing and bobsleighing) had increased, as had Calgary’s own popularity, and the city’s successful hosting of the XV Olympic Winter Games in 1988 brought Calgary to the attention of the world and put it firmly on the map.

Calgary’s ongoing population growth continued in the 1990s and early 21st century, along with dramatic urban sprawl. Construction companies could barely keep up with the demand for new suburban housing, and identikit subdivisions sprung up.

While this has been tempered somewhat since the 2008 global financial crisis, the city continues to attract both new investment and immigrants. Indeed, Calgary actively pursues well-educated domestic and international migrants, ensuring the city has a young, dynamic and motivated workforce. And though oil and gas remain vital to the economy, Calgary has come to realise it cannot depend on these natural resources alone and has diversified into areas such as manufacturing, transportation and IT.