The Rock

BARRACKS 1875 10 1914 ~ THIS STONE MARKS THE ORIGINAL SITE OF R.N.W.M.P. BARRACKS 1875-1914

ERECTED JULY 2, 1917

KEEPING MEMORY ALIVE THE ROCK

In 1875, the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) established Fort Calgary at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, laying the foundation for the City of Calgary. In 1914, the federal government transferred the land to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. For the next 61 years, the birthplace of the city was hidden under industrial site.

In 1917, on the 42nd anniversity of their arrival, the NWMP Veterans and the Colonel Macleod Chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the British Empire placed a sandstone boulder and a palque to commemorate the location of the original Fort Calgary. The rock remained the oly visible reminder of the city’s origins until the 1970s, when the site was reclaimed for the people of Calgary.