Calgary (kăl′gȧ-rī), situated at the confluence of Bow and Elbow Rivers, is the largest and most important city in the Canadian middle west. It is only 70 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. Its situation seems to guarantee for it a continuance of its phenomenal growth. Years ago the Canadian Pacific Railway authorities regarded it as a fixed commercial center.
As a ranching center Alberta is unsurpassed in the whole world. For a considerable time southern Alberta was little else than an immense ranch. The west continued to grow, the railways extended farther and farther in all directions. Wheat-growing was tried with astonishing success and all was changed. A grain of wheat planted in the autumn and ripening in the summer brought about the change. Winter wheat has made Alberta famous. This fact is one of the guarantees of the growth and prosperity of Calgary, the population of which is now about 44,000. Another is the irrigation system which the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed on a scale larger than anything heretofore attempted on this continent. In this case irrigation is another word for intensive agriculture and a growing population. Forty thousands of acres of grazing lands are proving through irrigation to be valuable winter-wheat lands.
The Canadian Pacific gives good service to Calgary. The Canadian Northern is fast approaching it from two directions. A road to Hudson Bay is more than a mere possibility. The Grand Trunk Pacific will reach Calgary before the end of 1909. The Great Northern (Mr. Hill's road) is to come to Calgary, and will bring the southwest part of Alberta in touch with it. This road will bring cheaper coal. In a word, more railroads are projected into Calgary than to any point west of Winnipeg.
Extensive coal-beds surround Calgary on all sides. The Canadian Northern Railway is using this coal, and it contributes to make Calgary a successful manufacturing center. West of Winnipeg, Calgary is the leading place for wholesale houses. Its custom receipts grew from $176,134,000 in 1904 to $604,358,000 in 1907. The freight receipts of the city (C. P. Ry.) in 1903 amounted to 94,000 tons and in 1907 to 291,000 tons. Its educational facilities are a credit to its spirit of foresight and enterprise. Its normal school (a handsome well-equipped structure) furnishes adequate professional training for the district surrounding it. It also has prosperous churches and a good hospital. It bids fair to be a considerable city in the near future. Calgary is the headquarters of the British Columbia Land and Irrigation Departments of the Canadian Pacific Railway.