Fort Macleod

The North-West Mounted Police marched west in 1874 to stop the American whisky trade that was devastating Blackfoot communities, and their first post was built here on an island in the Oldman River, giving the force its foothold and the town its name. A reconstructed fort houses a museum, with the Musical Ride performed by students in summer. The town has one of the better preserved main streets on the prairie, mostly brick and sandstone from 1900 to 1920, made Alberta's first provincial historic area in 1982, when a main street restoration began. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO site used for around six thousand years, is eighteen kilometres away.

History

The North-West Mounted Police built the fort in 1874 as a square 70 metres on each side beside the Oldman River, naming it after their commissioner, Colonel James Macleod, and it was moved in 1884 to where the town now stands. The town boomed as a divisional point of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was rebuilt in brick and stone after a fire swept its wooden downtown in 1906, and stagnated after 1912, when the railway moved the divisional point and 200 jobs to Lethbridge; its turn-of-the-century buildings survived untouched, and in 1982 the downtown became Alberta's first Provincial Historic Area as a main street restoration project began (Wikipedia, Fort Macleod).

The main sights

• The fort museum - a reconstruction of the 1874 NWMP post with a summer Musical Ride.
• The historic main street - brick and sandstone frontages from 1900 to 1920.
• The Blackfoot context - the whisky trade and its impact told at the museum.
• Head-Smashed-In nearby - the UNESCO buffalo jump eighteen kilometres west.

When to go

May to September for the fort and the Musical Ride; the museum closes or reduces sharply in winter. Head-Smashed-In is open year-round and worth pairing with a visit.

Practical notes

The fort is a reconstruction, not the original. The Musical Ride runs only in summer on a schedule. The town is small with limited services.

Nearby

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump lies west; Lethbridge is southeast.

Key facts