The Calgary and Edmonton Trail was a

land transport Land transport is the transport or movement of people, animals or goods from one location to another location on land. The two main forms of land transport can be considered to be rail transport and road transport. Systems Several systems of lan ...

route between

Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...

and

Fort Calgary Fort Calgary was a North-West Mounted Police outpost at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers in present-day Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after the outpost's first commander, the outpost was renamed ''Fort Calg ...

in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

. Prior to European contact, there was already a route through the area that local Indigenous peoples used to travel from the Shortgrass Prairies in the south to the

Aspen Parkland Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretchi ...

in the north and back. After a fur

trade post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

was established at Fort Edmonton, these trails became part of the massive fur-trading transportation network that European companies used to export furs from the interior to the coasts and on to Europe. The northern portion of trail to Fort Edmonton was traveled by David Thompson in 1800. The more modern trail was

blazed Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A bla ...

by John McDougall in 1873 as far as

Morley Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * M ...

and extended to Calgary two years later. Development of the trail allowed

mail service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

between Calgary and Edmonton in July 1883.

Name and namesakes

Alberta Highway 2 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2 or the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Pr ...

is now the main route from Edmonton to Calgary. Most of it bears the name " Queen Elizabeth II Highway", but some sections are named in honour of the old trail, as are other roads leading in the same direction. Heading south from Edmonton, the trail was called "Calgary Trail".

Calgary Trail Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, making ...

now refers to the southbound portion of Highway 2 within the boundaries of the city of Edmonton. Heading north from Calgary, the trail bore the name " Edmonton Trail". That name now refers to a north–south feeder road in Calgary approximately 1 km west of the current Highway 2 and approximately 0.25 km east of Centre Street North. A segment of the old trail through the city of Airdrie is also called Edmonton Trail.

References

History of Alberta Historic trails and roads in Alberta District of Alberta Pre-Columbian trails and roads {{Alberta-stub

Name and namesakes

See also

References