Bowness, Calgary

The Bow Valley, where Bowness is situated, has been occupied by native peoples since the end of the last ice age, around 10,500 years ago. Archeological evidence shows that the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) have been in the area for over a thousand years, with Stoney, Cree and Tsuu T'ina peoples arriving from the sixteenth century onwards. Non-natives reached the region in the late 1700s, after which native populations began to decline rapidly, due to epidemics and the decimation of the bison herds on which they depended. In 1877, the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Tsuu T'ina and Stoney First Nations signed Treaty 7, were forced to live on reserves that covered some of their traditional hunting grounds.[7]

At about the same time Treaty 7 was signed, the Dominion Land Survey was done, making it easier to lease or sell land in the west of Canada. The area which is now Bowness was leased for a while by the Cochrane Ranche Company, from 1883. It was then bought and sold several times over the next few decades. Two of these sales were important for the subsequent history of Bowness. In 1890–91 Thomas Stone and Jasper M. Richardson purchased the land. They started the Bowness Ranche and built a ranch house whose stables and barns were on an island in the river which is now Bowness Park. The name Bowness was apparently chosen by Stone, who had enjoyed visiting Bowness-on-Windermere in the English Lake District before coming to Canada.[8]

The second sale of note was in 1908, to John Hextall, an English solicitor. Calgary, just six miles to the east, was booming at the time and Hextall envisioned turning Bowness into an exclusive residential suburb "in a natural scenic setting of great beauty".[9] In 1911, he subdivided part of the ranch, built a bridge personally for $75,000,[10] and got the City of Calgary to run its streetcar line across the bridge into his development, which he called Bowness Estates. In return, he donated two islands on the Bow to the City, for use as a park, now known as Bowness Park. (This arrangement is strikingly similar to one made in 1909 to develop the Glenora suburb of Edmonton.)

Despite an aggressive advertising campaign, and improvements such as the building of a golf course and club house, only a handful of lots were sold. There was a downturn in the economy and then World War I broke out in 1914, and Hextall himself died the same year. After the war, Bowness languished, although Bowness Park was extremely popular with Calgarians, who came in the thousands on the streetcar. Some small farms were established and enough lots sold to justify building a school in 1932, some stores, and in 1934 a post office. Marty Wood, the famous rodeo cowboy, arrived with his family in 1940 or 1941, and attended Bowness School. His parents opened riding stables on Chinook (now 34th.) Avenue. Of note also was the use of a large field near the park, the Bowness Flying Field, as Calgary's first commercial airport. It was managed by Fred McCall, a Canadian wartime flying ace, who flew mostly sightseeing flights to Banff and around the area throughout the twenties.

Bowness began to take off again after World War II, when the government provided 48 one acre plots to returning veterans, in an area known as the Soldiers' Settlement. Schools and churches were built and in 1947 two theatres were opened to serve the growing population. A volunteer fire brigade was formed, a fire hall built, and other public services provided.

Bowness incorporated as a village on February 14, 1948.[1] After recording a population of 2,922 in the 1951 Census of Canada,[11] the village then incorporated as the Town of Bowness on November 5, 1951.[2] John Mackintosh was elected as the first mayor[14] of the Town of Bowness in March 1952.[2]

Bowness grew considerably following incorporation in 1951. By 1956, its population doubled to 6,217 and then tripled to 9,184 in 1961.[12][13] Following the adjacent Town of Montgomery's amalgamation into the City of Calgary in 1963, the Town of Bowness held a vote in October 1963 to determine its residents' position on the town being absorbed by Calgary. The result was 1,003 votes in favour and 397 in opposition.[15] The Town of Bowness was subsequently amalgamated into the City of Calgary on August 15, 1964.[3] The last population recorded for Bowness was 9,116 in 1964.[16]