The land of what is now Calgary was at one time under water. We have found clam shells in rock in some of the cliffs. But those date back a long time and in more recent history when the land was dry, we know that two rivers met here. They were the Bow, flowing from the Bow Glacier eastward and the Elbow River, also coming from the mountains but from Elbow Lake and flowing north west to join the Bow. Where the two rivers merged seemed like a good place to camp and early traders set up a post in the coulee there.  It was near Nose Hill, a place named after a vicious fight where an early warrior had his nose severed.

The Bow River was named by the Blackfoot after their word for weapons. Natives found that the trees along the river banks made particularly good bows. It was a good area for hunting too since buffalo roamed wild and natives made a buffalo jump of some of the taller hills so animals would in panic jump to their deaths. By 1893 traders came from the east offering whisky and blankets, metal, knives and guns in exchange for animal pelts- otter, fox, muskrat, beaver.

 Even the bones of buffalo were sent back east to be used as garden fertilizer. In about 1875 there were bones of 125 buffalo all piled together ready for trade.  Buffalo were herded across hills toward s a sudden cliff at what  are now Nose Hill and Rideau Park Hill, Spruce Cliff, Twin Bridges, Bow Valley Ranch. There have been buffalo skulls found in many areas including in what is now Olympic Heights.

The Bow and Elbow were not big rivers by eastern standards but they provided a supply of water and a way to get around.  Large sections of them froze in the winter and in spring the runoff from the mountains often caused them to reroute and flood. If you built a place near the river it might get flooded and this happened to early settlers several times. The river valley was a tenting place for natives trading at the fort the traders set up, and this happened both at Fort Edmonton and at Fort Calgary.  There was a grave yard in a hilly area in  1890 that natives used for some of their dead and we know that the reason paths wind erratically down to the river in Elbow Park is because those were buffalo trails.

It was a dry climate in summer with spruce and Douglas fir trees beside the river, mountain ash, silver maple, white spruce, poplar, oak and elm trees. It was a great place for people to build a fort as early traders discovered.

There were grassy foothills, fescue grasses, rolling land. But it could be windy, posing some challenges for settlers.  Heat waves were brief but one in 1936 destroyed many fields.  The heat and the prairie grasses meant that if a fire started it could spread rapidly and some fires started just by lightning. Early settlers had to figure out how to handle fire. Once people could measure it, they found a record wind gust of 127 km an hour June 10 1956.

It is not an area known for tornadoes but they come sometimes. In 1927 forty tornadoes hit central Alberta..    When  the wind blew, it blew dust and soil for miles and dust storms of the 1930s made it even hard to breathe. 

The heat and cold were also a challenge.  A record high of 36 degrees C was reached July 15 1919. in Calgary and in nearby Brooks the record high was 43.4 degrees C in 1931. As tropical climates go this is not high but for an area that also gets very cold, it was surprising.  Heat waves of the 1930s destroyed many fields and settlers had to learn how to rotate crops and plant wind guards.

In very hot weather some years there were caterpillar infestations, in others plagues of grasshoppers. Yet the  summer also brought lovely flowers – dandelions, pussy willows, crocus, tiger lilies, and even wild roses.

It is a sunny area, clocking in about 2300 hours of sun each year and oddly some of this sunshine comes in the winter, for there is little mist since no lakes are nearby.  Length of sunshine is not the same every day. Located at 51 degrees north latitude, the area sees big differences in length of day between summer and winter.  In July the sun may be up before 5:30 AM and not set till 10PM, giving 16.5 hours of light. But in January the sun is not up until after 8:30AM and sets before 5PM, giving only 8.5 hours of daylight, a striking contrast.  This means that anyone who came here found out very quickly how well you have to function in the dark.  For farmers and children headed to school, it shifted the whole paradigm. Settlers had to become very adept at how to build fires and create light and heat.

Being only 80 km from the mountains, the sun does not set in the west in a leisurely way but rather suddenly disappearing behind the ranges. The autumn nights are not gentle warm times but often surprisingly cold.

The real test of endurance however was the winter.  People could die outdoors in blizzards and some early settlers did, even Rev. George McDougall who went out in a snowstorm in 1876 and was found dead days later.

The record low recorded was minus 45 C on Feb 4 1893.Once records were kept a memorable snowfall was 48 cm in one day – May 6, 1981. It did  not snow all year round but freak snow storms in late spring often happened. In fact the area gets 25% of its snow after March. On June 5, 1951 it snowed 40 cm in 36 hours. The cold weather meant that people could freeze fingers and toes in minutes if not properly dressed, or worse still, could become disoriented in a blizzard and freeze to death. With neighbours few and far between early settlers rarely had help around. People had to stay close together to survive.  Snow could pile up so high against your building that you could not open the door to get out even if you wanted to and most doors were made to open inward, to allow exit at all.  In 1938 some gulleys nearby had snowdrifts 50 feet high.

The area however had odd warm winds some winter days, winds that suddenly sprang up from the west and melted the snow, raising the air temperature so fast people were amazed.  The winds were named Chinooks after the Chinook tribe that lived farther west, along the Columbia River. It is such a dry wind that snow will not just melt but evaporate the same day, making a four foot drift just disappear. On Jan 27,  1962 the temperature went from minus 18 C to plus 3C -up 21 degrees C- in one hour. In 1966 just south of Calgary the temperature went from minus 24 at 7AM to plus 21 at 9AM, a temperature hike of 46 degree C in two hours. People used to say that travelling on a Chinook day you could have sleigh runners at the front of your wagon and bald prairie at the back.

There were wild animals too- coyotes roaming and bear from the nearby mountains.  Beaver dammed up the creeks and wild deer roamed the area freely. They still are often sighted I 2012 right inside the city limits. About 250 species of birds nest in the area and 385 types can be seen at one time of the year or another.  There are 90 types of mammals and 59 of fish in nearby rivers and creeks.  Early settlers used all of these as they could.

It was to this area that dreamers came, early fortune hunters to get furs, explorers to see new land, settlers who dared to brave the climate.. Violence between traders and native tribes and between native tribes themselves erupted. People argued over what they found here and some hunters from the south  looking for wolves in1873 attacked and killed natives already in the area. There was a need for order.  Government from the east sent out a police force- the North West Mounted Police. By 1880 there were 4 NWMP officers at the new Fort Calgary, and 75 people living at the fort they built where the rivers meet. When Colonel Macleod saw the area he rejected the name for it that officer  Brisebois had given it of Fort Brisebois and chose instead Calgary.  It is a word of Scottish origin that means water in a gorge, hut in a thicket, laughing bay, rough haven, enclosed field, clear running water. Translations apparently vary.

When settlers followed it was usually because of the land.  Early traders saw the potential for money from fur trade and others came looking for gold in the Klondike in 1896.  Settlers followed, seeing the potential of the hills for ranching, seeing the potential of the prairies for farming. They brought cattle, sheep, horses.  They were dreamers, hoping to build their futures here. It’s like the saying about a ham and egg breakfast. The chicken contributes. The pig however is committed. Early settlers brought all they had, risked their own lives even. They were committed.

But they did not stop having to deal with the weather for it did not change.  The weather affected where they built their homes, how they got around, what they did to earn money and even their health. Living large distances from medical care was itself a risk and they learned to improvise.

In 1922 the prairies had grasshopper infestations, plagues of army cutworms and wireworms. Drought and hail spoiled what crops had been carefully sowed. Wind swept away topsoil in dust storms, wiping out dreams.  In 1944 a fire on Nose Hill in the Silver Springs area spread so fast it burned many houses, stock and grass.

Snow could shut down the little town, block the train on its tracks and even in 2012 snow can slow the city to a crawl. In 1950 a blizzard made snow drifts so deep that cattle were able to climb up onto a farmhouse roof. In 1964 wind chill and cold created a temperature just  north of Calgary of minus 73 Centigrade.

People who settled in districts of Sunnyside, Eau Claire, East Village and Inglewood discovered they were on the Bow River flood plain.  The Bow River flooded in 1894 when it rose over 6 feet above normal. Lower areas of town including the police post went under water. It flooded again in  1897 when it went 5.3 metres above normal. Logs and debris floated town the river. But the Bow also flooded in 1902, 1915, 1929 and 1932. The Elbow flooded in 1915, 1923, 1929 and 1932. There have also been flooded areas even in 2005 and 2009 in Sunnyside when snow melts were unusually fast on the Bow. The Elbow flooded some areas of Mission as recently as 2005. Life gets easier but not perfect.

Early settlers had to deal with the heat, the dryness,the cold and snow, the flooding and they approached these several clever ways.  One was to do what they could to avert crisis. Eventually dams were built upstream –  Bearspaw Dam to the west on the Bow River and Glenmore Dam on the Elbow, mainly to store water for electric power generation but also giving some flood protection. Berms,, dykes and floodwalls were built in high risk areas and the city still keeps on hand sandbags for emergencies. Storm sewers were built to allow faster drainage of roads after heavy rain.

Early settlers coped with the cold by building even makeshift houses with insulation even if was just mud between the cracks or newspapers. They  developed strains of wheat that had short growing seasons to cope with the early frost. They made barns for their animals to be sheltered in winter and some even heated the barns.

They built their farms with fences as snow guards, and lined their property and that of towns with trees as shelters from blizzards.  To plant a tree takes vision, for it may be ten years before its height effectively protects the homestead, but early settlers had that vision.  If you look around Calgary today even, any rows of straight lines of trees, at Edworthy Park, around majestic buildings show the legacy of that vision.

The city could not stop it from snowing but it could make a whole traffic system to plough snow on major routes efficiently so cars could still pass.  In the downtown over time office towers were linked by heated enclosed overpass walkways in  a system called the Plus 15. The system was designed in 1970 by Howard Hanen and now in 2012 it links dozens of buildings through 59 walkways and at a total length of 16 km. It is the world’s most extensive enclosed elevated pedestrian walkway and you can shop, go to offices, navigate all business needs without ever having to go outside.

If they could not change the weather and could not fight it, they could opt to enjoy it. The frozen ice could be made into backyard rinks and skating became so popular for a time that every school had its own skating rink in the winter. Snow could be enjoyed by sledding down the many hills and skiing cross country and in the mountains became a favorite sport. Local kids quickly learn how to make snowmen, snow forts and most schools very early had to set up policy about snowballs in the playground.

Enjoying the cold became a lifestyle. Bowness Park, created in 1911, featured a huge outdoor skating rink . From December to March, the lagoon was carefully groomed and maintained as an ice rink with firepits to warm up at and music played on outdoor speakers. Winter was also opportunity and as the white snowflakes fell there was a  forecast: heavy snow followed by small children with sleds.

Setting up schools for the children of pioneers was parallel to the struggles the pioneers themselves faced. . The same passion that drove them to seed crops and pray for rain led them to insist their children get an education and have an even better life. Is was the dream of the pioneer, one of vision.

When the schools were named in the city, their names often reflected this awe of nature.  Some schools were named for the valleys, hills, creeks and meadows themselves- Valley Creek, Hidden Valley, Edgemont, Silver Springs, Hillhurst, Canyon Meadows, Ranchlands, Riverbend, Glenbrook, Crescent Heights, Terrace Road. 

Some schools in this area of prairies and foothills were named for the view they got of the area – Vista Heights, West View, Panorama, Greenview, Fairview, Scenic Acres, Valleyview, Bonavista. Some schools even gave tribute to the birds and animals native to the area- Deer Run, Fish Creek, Falconridge. Some were tributes to the trees- Maple Ridge,Evergreen, Forest Lawn, Arbour Lake, Briar Hil, Cedarbrae, Rosemont, Royal Oak, Southwood, Spruce Cliff, Wildwood, Willow Park, Woodlands.  It was a small way to recognize the agreement we make with nature to live here..

The west lured people not just by its beauty, the stunning vistas and wide open spaces but also frankly, the adventure.  It took guts to come here. And even in 2012 from across the country people flock to Alberta, and often to Calgary, with a dream of jobs, homes, a good life.  With its oil and gas industry as an anchor now to the national economy, its climate roller coaster, like the oil and gas roller coaster is deemed worth the risk.  People still have a pioneer spirit.  It has been said that natural selection does not function any  more given our advanced technologies, but for pioneers it was somewhat still operating. You had to be cut from a certain cloth to come here at all, and to survive here,  you had to be a fighter.  You can hear their longing for the future in names they even gave of some rural districts – Linger longer, Heart Lake, Gooseberry Plains, Golden Grain, Buffalo Trail, Chinook’s Edge, Prairie Rose.

It is the spirit that still today has strangers put down what they are carrying and without being asked help push a car out of a snowdrift. It is the spirit behind city policy to ensure the homeless can be in from the cold, sheltered from the winter.

When settlers came they brought their energy, their creative minds, the patience they would need to endure setbacks regularly in what has been called “next year country’.  But the dreamers came, married, set up homes and lives. They chose to raise their children and stake their fortune in this challenging area.

And they brought those children, their best and biggest part of their dream, to the schools.  They believed what we would offer there was vital to their future.  It was our job, come what may, to live up to that expectation, to carry forward that dream.

And it was not easy. The schools faced the same challenges the pioneers faced. We faced them together. Why did we too it? We  too shared the dream of a good start on this land, and a good start in life.