Travel Channel

The first people to occupy Banff were Native Americans who arrived in the Bow River Valley nearly 11,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age was coming to an end. Finding the winter climate mild due to the chinooks (strong, warm winds that rush out of the mountains and onto the prairie in the middle of the winter), they settled in the protected mountain valleys, and enjoyed the abundance of fish and wildlife that called the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains home. Over time, they developed into the Cree, Kootenay and Blackfoot tribes, who coexisted in relative peace for the next 9,900 years.

In the late 1700's, a smallpox epidemic washed over the Great Plains, killing half the native population and seriously weakening the survivors. Buffalo hunters had also reduced the thundering herds to a shadow of their former selves, eradicating a major source of food. Territorial conflicts broke out among the tribes, who had received horses and firearms from trading partners to the east. Rumours of European traders and missionaries began arriving, and soon after explorers began to trickle into the area. Most of the travellers were in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and were seeking new areas to trap and trade furs.

Fur trading and mining exploration remained the primary activities in the region until the 1850's, when surveying expeditions, including the famous Palliser Expedition, came to chart the Southern Rockies and northwestern prairies. Their maps were used in the definition of the emerging country of Canada, and would prove vital in later years for defining the route of the Canadian National Railroad, which would eventually link the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and provide a vital trade link between Europe and the Orient.

In 1883, the Canadian National Railroad was pushed through the Rocky Mountain ramparts via the Bow River Valley, passing close to the present day Banff townsite. During the construction of the railroad, three construction workers were exploring the slopes of nearby Sulphur Mountain when they stumbled across a collection of small hot springs bubbling out of the rock. A heated debate erupted over the ownership of the springs, which would later be known as the Cave and Basin National Historic Site.

The Government of Canada finally stepped in and designated the springs, as well as a 673-square-kilometre area surrounding them, as the country's first national park. It was called the Rocky Mountains Park, and instantly became popular with travellers on the railroad, which had a station called Siding 29 nearby.

Siding 29 quickly became the birthplace for the town of Banff, and the jumping-off point for the newly constructed what is known today as the Fairmont Banff Springs. The hotel had many renovations between 1888 and 1926, and evolved from a spartan wooden hut to the palatial structure present today. It became a tourist attraction in its own right, drawing European aristocracy with its mineral springs and revitalizing spa, as well as luxury seldom found elsewhere in North America.

With the hotel came Banff’s tourism era. The Canadian Pacific Railway Corporation, which owned both the Fairmont Banff Springs and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, imported Swiss mountain guides to take visitors up to the icefields and onto the highest peaks surrounding the town.

The Mount Norquay Ski Hill opened in 1928, and was soon joined by the Sunshine Village and Lake Louise ski areas. With the explosion in the popularity of downhill skiing and the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962, getting to Banff became easy and relatively inexpensive.

The growing town eventually ran out of room for new buildings. Real estate prices soared, and it became uneconomical to live and work in Banff at the same time. Many local business owners and employees moved to the nearby town of Canmore, which soon developed into a destination in its own right. To prevent Banff from becoming overcrowded, the notorious “need to reside” law was passed in the 1960s, which stated that no person could live in Banff unless he or she was employed in the city.

Banff has been hit by a new overpopulation problem. Wild local elk discovered that the golf courses and lawns made an excellent source of food, and that no predator would venture into town after them. They quickly took over, and, at their peak, it was estimated that there were over 100 elk within the city limits. There were several attacks on tourists and locals, which resulted in a mass relocation in the summer of 2000 that has appeared to resolve the situation.

Currently, Banff is a thriving resort destination with dozens of hotels, restaurants and shops, and an exceptional diversity of wilderness and adventure activities. Modeled after the mountain villages of the Alps, it attracts an international clientele unmatched anywhere else in Canada.

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