Bow Valley History - NWMP Barracks

When visitors drive down Main Street they often see the cute little building, archway, and garden past the entrance to Spring Creek Drive and say “Oh, that’s nice!”  That reaction and that pleasant ‘gateway feature’ tied to our local history was part of the end goal that a rookie Canmore town councilor had in mind in 1987 when she began her drive to restore a little house and adjacent lots to its historical splendour as the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) Barracks.

Linda Hammell, recently elected to her first term on council and fairly new to Canmore, noticed our town hadn’t done a great job of preserving historical buildings compared to her former home back east.  When a private home that was once the location of the town’s police officer lodgings, offices, and jail went up for sale she saw a rare opportunity to bring a piece of Canmore’s history back into the fold.  Convincing Vi Sandford and the rest of the Canmore Museum board to get behind the project was the easy part; what she didn’t expect were the many hurdles and long years it would take to see it through to completion.  Thankfully, in true Canmore fashion, the community saw a worthwhile endeavour and volunteered their efforts to make it happen.

I spoke with Linda and Vi who shared the NWMP Barracks restoration story on-air as well as a few interesting bits of trivia such as the answer to “Why is that archway so tall?”

Thanks to government support, the Canmore Museum board, and a huge volunteer and fundraising effort, the North West Mounted Police Barracks building was restored to its former glory and remains in great condition to this day.  Currently operated by the Canmore Museum & Geoscience Centre, the NWMP Barracks is open year-round for tours so residents and visitors alike can step inside and look back at piece of Canmore’s history.

Bow Valley History is a new feature we’re running on Mountain FM with the goal of sharing and preserving stories and memories from our local past.  This is the first of such stories – if you have something tied to our local history you’d like to see included in this project please send me an email.