I was a Fort Calgary Preservation Society board member for 14 years, from 2004 to 2018, and chair of the board for five years (2013 to 2018). Fort Calgary is a civic, provincial and national historic site, not because it is the confluence of two rivers, not because Indigenous peoples wandered here and set up temporary camps. It is designated as the place where the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) “F Troop” crossed the Bow River in 1875 to establish their post.
That place is considered the birthplace and hallowed ground of our beautiful, modern city called Calgary. It is also a significant historic site because of its importance to the history of Canada. Canada as a country today exists mainly because of the building of the railway that united this broad country, and the march west that established a NWMP presence in the area, which stopped the Americans from incorporating these territories into their country.
Since I left Fort Calgary in 2018, its brand has been purposely eroded. The logo was changed in 2019 to remove any presence of the Mounties. The new logo did not refer to anything historic.
Recently, a new brand — and another logo — renamed Fort Calgary as The Confluence Historic Site and Parkland. While I am not even sure what that means, I am even more confused by the apparent elimination of Fort Calgary from the public conscience. You can still do everything they say they want to do under the Fort Calgary banner.
No matter how hard you try to erase the Fort Ca.
