Treaty 7 and Cow Town
1875 to 1885
Railway
The agreement of Treaty 7 in 1877 paved the way for the government to apportion land for the coming railway.
Work was underway, but financing was proving a significant problem. Yet the conflict in Saskatchewan demonstrated the benefits of the railway to the government. Troops were mobilized to the conflict area in 9 days, whereas it had taken 3 months to send resources to Red River in 1870.
Political support for the railway came at a critical time, when the unfinished line was on the verge of bankruptcy. The government under Sir John A. supplied the funds to finish it, fulfilling Canada’s promise to B.C. and completing the dream of a transportation link entirely within and across our continent-sized country.
Father Lacombe, who was serving as parish priest of St. Mary’s, provided consultation to CPR on the best route through eastern Alberta. Lacombe’s contacts with Indigenous peoples helped to avoid direct conflict during the surveying.
Canadian Pacific Railway construction on the prairies, 1883 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection)
It was originally planned that the railway would head for Fort Edmonton, but this was changed for a more direct route to B.C. via Regina and Calgary and then through the Rockies at Kicking Horse Pass (so named because geologist Hector of the Palliser Expedition was kicked so hard by his horse his guides thought he had died).
As a result of the course change, the railway moved in to investigate Blackfoot Crossing as a possible route, which stoked significant opposition from the Siksiká. Lacombe convened a meeting and reassured the Siksiká the route would not impinge on their rights and sacred lands. As thanks, both Lacombe and Crowfoot received lifetime ridership on the CPR.
The railway arrived in Alberta in 1883. This meant the need for supplies from Fort Benton, MT diminished rapidly, with the last bull train travelling the Whoop-Up Trail in 1892. It wouldn’t be used again until U.S. prohibition laws led to a revival of the illegal alcohol trade in the 1920s, called Bootlegger Trail, but in the opposite direction.
As the railway approached the Rockies, William Pearce was sent to Calgary in 1884 to oversee the development of timber and mineral resources. Pearce was a government land surveyor who helped develop the meridian, baseline and township grid system that characterizes the prairies today. He was also charged with settling Métis land claims in Battleford and Prince Albert, the failure of which was a grievance that led to Riel’s Resistance.
Pearce was a believer in the government retaining its reserve rights over critical resources in order to develop them in the public interest. This led to his recommendation that Banff hot springs be set aside for public use and his drafting of the 1887 statute creating Rocky Mountains Parks, Canada’s first national park. In Calgary, he set aside St. George’s and St. Patrick’s Islands and the north side of the Bow River as future parklands.
He also put his own land to use.
Pearce Estate is located where the Bow River bends southward east of Inglewood. In 1889, Pearce built his home there and began experimenting with land use methods, including forest practices. He also started using irrigation, which would dramatically alter the prairie landscape in the years to come. He donated his land to the City of Calgary in 1929 and today it’s a park and the location of Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery.
William Pearce residence, Calgary, ca. late 1880s (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection). Pearce’s home was called Bow Bend Shack. It was demolished in 1957.
The railway was completed in 1885. At its peak, the CPR employed 10,000 workers. The last spike was driven by Donald A. Smith, principal financier. Standing next to him was Sanford Fleming, who helped find the last remaining route through the Selkirk Mountains, near Revelstoke, B.C.
With the completion of Canada’s intercontinental railway, major changes were heading this way, for unlike many other towns, Calgary was now connected to the world.
Driving the last spike on the Canadian Pacific Railway, Craigellachie, B.C., 1885 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection). L-R centre group: W. C. Van Horne; Sandford Fleming; Honourable D. A. Smith, with spike maul [hammer] also known as Lord Strathcona; J. H. McTavish; J. M. Egan; James Ross. Man with beard, right of Smith is Henry J. Cambie, chef on Van Horne’s railway car. Another identification claims that Van Horne’s chef is John G. Pearson, standing to the right of Ross. Little boy in front is Edward Mallandaine.
Cow Town
In the 1880s, the Bow/Elbow confluence was attracting more people. The Métis had already established settlements along the Elbow. On Scotsman’s Hill, HBC employee Angus Fraser set up a lodging overlooking the Elbow in 1874. It was named Fraser Hill, but his Scottish origins saw it become Scotman’s, or Scotchman’s Hill, which is how I referred to it as a child visiting my Portuguese grandparents in Ramsay.
Further afield, former American slave John Ware arrived in Alberta in 1882. After the U.S. Civil War, he left Tennessee and travelled and worked throughout America before establishing a homestead near Millarville, AB. He developed a reputation as a skilled cowboy, even legendary, with tales of him stopping a steer head-on and wrestling it to the ground or of him walking along the backs of a herd of cattle. He later established a large herd near Duchess, AB.
Along Fish Creek, John Glenn had set up his farm and continued innovating. He’s the first on the Canadian prairies to develop an irrigation system, which he used on his fields and on those of Samuel W. Shaw, who also used the water to power a woollen mill. Shaw arrived in 1883 and established a homestead on Fish Creek that expanded to include a post office and mill. The area’s success went noticed, particularly when the Marquess of Lorne visited.
S. W. Shaw’s original log house, Midnapore, AB, ca. 1884-1885 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection)
The Marquess was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1878 and he toured the prairies in 1881. The visit impacted him greatly. He made many speeches in the years after that mentioned his love for the beauty of the prairies, particularly the Calgary area, and the newspapers printed his sketches.
Upon his return, he formally created the Royal Society of Canada to expound upon science from across the new country, in the fashion of Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution.
Glenn went on and used his farming success to become the first local to buy CPR plots in the townsite of Calgary in 1883. Glenn was also a strong advocate for farmers, and directed to Ottawa a protest concerning homesteading and farming regulations, Métis grievances, and the lack of western representation in government. The “West Wants In” movement was born right along with our city.
Tent town, Calgary, 1883 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection). East of Elbow River.
Calgary was incorporated as a town in 1884, also the year the buffalo effectively disappeared from the prairie landscape. The area had developed rapidly after the first settlements, which reversed the diminishing importance of the fort. It was made a district post in 1882, with more officers assigned to it to police the area for the coming railway.
In preparation for its leap in importance, William Roper Hull and brother John drove 1200 horses from B.C. to Calgary in 1883 and sold them to the NWMP and Northwest Cattle Company. Hull saw a future for the new town and bought a farm at Midnapore in 1892. In 1884, there was an estimated 25,000 head of cattle between the Bow River and U.S. border.
Others began homesteading around Calgary. In 1887, Richard Copithorne was a labourer building Mission Bridge when he decided to homestead. His brother John was ferrying supplies between Calgary and Morleyville. Together they established ranches near a buffalo jump along Jumping Pound Creek, today called CL Ranch.
Other would-be ranchers were former officers of the NWMP whose enlistment had expired while they were in Calgary. They accepted their end-of-term land grants and joined the ranching trade.
At the same time, ranching was being advertised in Britain, with many landed gentry investing their capital to establish their own, especially with the railway guaranteeing access to distant markets. With Senator Cochrane leading the way, a beef bonanza saw the establishment of several large ranches, including Oxley, Walrond, and also Bar U, now a National Historic Site. This area of small homesteads and a police fort was truly becoming a Cow Town.
Meanwhile, the CPR Station was to be built next to the fort. Major James Walker, owner of the Bow River Sawmill, was contracted to expand the fort. The palisades and older buildings went down and up went barracks, jail cell, hospital, officer’s quarters, a mess and workshops. Total cost was $35,000 (about $1.1 million today).
North-West Mounted Police barracks, Calgary, 1888 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection). Part of old Fort Calgary at left. Officers standing to attention in front of barracks.
Major Walker had taken part in the March West and left the NWMP in 1881 to serve as operations manager on the first large-scale ranch in Alberta, which was being organized by Senator Matthew H. Cochrane. Senator Cochrane had secured rights to the land upon his own recommendation to cabinet for how the Crown should grant rights for grazing on the prairies.
Walker drove cattle from Montana to the Cochrane ranch, but it was hard work and the cattle suffered from starvation and an unusually cold winter. He eventually left ranching and bought Cochrane’s sawmill. He moved it to the site of today’s Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in 1883, from where he donated the lumber to build the first Knox Presbyterian Church.
He also constructed his home there, which is today one of the last remaining homesteads in the city. James Walker House is an Italianate-style residence and was made with local red brick along with sandstone elements.
Colonel James Walker’s sawmill, Calgary, ca. 1880-1883 (Glenbow Library and Archives Collection). L-R: unknown; unknown; unknown; unknown; James Neilson McPherson; John A. Patterson; John Arnell; unknown; Mr. Tellyard (baker); Selby Walker (boy); Colonel James Walker.
Colonel James Walker House, September 2017 (James Mott, via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)
Walker became a notary and justice of the peace. He chaired the committee that argued for Calgary’s incorporation as a town. He laid the first sidewalk in Calgary, became the first president of the Board of Trade, sought to establish a school district, and installed the city’s first telephone lines, between his downtown office and the sawmill.
Walker was a founding resident of our city, and was known to the Cree during his NWMP days as Pee-tee-quack-kee (“the eagle that protects”). In 1975 he was named Calgary’s Citizen of the Century.
With Cow Town firmly established, the next developments in and around Calgary would shape the history of the city you’re probably most familiar with today.
– Anthony Imbrogno is a volunteer with The Calgary Heritage Initiative Society/Heritage Inspires YYC
– All copyright images cannot be shared without prior permission
Where to See this Era
Indian Battle Park, 200 Indian Battle Rd S, Lethbridge, AB T1J 5B3
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Interstate 90, Battlefield Tour Rd, Crow Agency, MT 59022
Blackfoot Crossing National Historic Site and Park, HWY 842, Wheatland County, AB T0J 3W0
Batoche National Historic Site, Highway 225, Batoche, SK S0K 3R0
Frog Lake National Historic Site, Fish Lake Rd (Township Road 562), Frog Lake, AB T0A 1X0
Fort Carlton Provincial Park, SK-212, Duck Lake, SK S0K
Historic Fort Normandeau, 28054 B TWP 382, Red Deer County, AB T4N 3M4
Innisfail Historical Village, 5139 42 St, Innisfail, AB T4G 1K2
The Last Spike (part of Revelstoke Railway Museum), Hwy 1, Craigellachie, BC V0E 2S0
Bar U Ranch National Historic Site, Township Rd 17A, Longview, AB T0L 1H0
Cochrane Historical & Archival Preservation Society, 94 AB-1A, Cochrane, AB T4C 1B8
Pearce Estate Park, 1440 17a St SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4T9
Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, 2425 9 Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4T4
Further Reading
Treaty 7 Tribal Council, Walter Hildebrandt, Sarah Carter and Dorothy First Rider, The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7, 1996, McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Garrett Wilson, Frontier Farewell: The 1870s and the End of the Old West, 2014, University of Regina Press
Stephen R. Brown, Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada, 2023, Doubleday Canada.
North-West Rebellion/Resistance
Many more biographies are available at https://www.biographi.ca/
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