Calgary
City
82 O
Approximately 300 km south of Edmonton.
This NWMP Fort was established in 1876 and was named by Lieutenant-Colonel James
Farquharson Macleod. A Mounted Police report dated 30 December 1876, states that there were stationed at Fort Calgary at that time, one Inspector, one Sub-inspector and thirty-five constables and sub-constables. In the same year the Hudson's Bay
Company opened a trading station close to the site of the fort with Angus Fraser in charge. There were three structures--a store, a residence for the manager and an interpreter's cabin - which were made of logs floated down the river from the west. By 1 October 1883, a post office had been opened.
But what about the name itself? On the Isle of Mull, Scotland, Col. Macleod's sister, through marriage, was related to a family who owned a small castle. James Macleod had
visited it years before and decided to remember it in the name of the Fort. The Blackfoot name for Calgary was moll-inistsis-in-aka-apewis, "elbow many houses," and the Cree name is O-toos-kwa-nik, translating to "elbow house." Both refer to the Elbow River. Of this we are sure.
What the word Calgary means has been the subject of heated debate. For decades people
relied on an explanation found in a letter from Colonel Irvine to the Deputy Minister of Justice Bernard, dated February 29, 1876: "Colonel Macleod has suggested the name of Calgary which I believe in Scotch means clear running water, a very appropriate name, I think." This explanation was refuted in a 1976 pamphlet produced by the Glenbow Museum
in Calgary. In the booklet, a good case was made for the meaning "enclosed pasture by the bay," or "bay farm."