Calgary City Map Poster

About Calgary

The city was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. In turn, the name originates from a compound of "kald" (cold) and "hjôrð" (bay), similarly meaning "cold bay". Alternatively, the name might be Gaelic for either 'clear running water' or 'bay farm'. The initial European settlement in the area was by fur traders who established outposts in present-day Calgary in 1787 and Fort Chipewyan in 1788. In 1875, Canada's first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned a scouting party to locate an appropriate site for a regional capital on behalf of Ottawa's western economic interests; however he only approved construction of military buildings as there were already several settlements along what is now known as The Bow River that pre-dated Confederation but none had yet been established at its confluence with Elbow Lake (later renamed to Glenmore Reservoir).