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First Nations, fur trade, and early settlement
The fur trader James Gaddy and the Hudson’s Bay Company explorer David Thompson are traditionally considered to be the first people of European origin to discover the Bow River. They camped along the Bow with a group of Piikani during the 1787-1788 winter. Before they arrived, First Nations populations had lived in Bow area for thousands of years. Among them were the Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, and the Blackfoot Confederacy, consisting of the Kainai, Piikanai, and Siksika peoples. The Kutenai had migrated westwards, possibly in the early eighteenth century, but still ventured into the Bow region occasionally to hunt bison.

First Nations used the river’s valleys for the buffalo hunt, in which herds of buffalo were driven over the cliffs or into valleys where they could be more easily killed with bows and arrows. Of all the First Nations groups that lived in the Bow River area, only the Nakoda fished the river regularly. While other groups likely caught fish during harder times, they primarily hunted buffalo during the summer season when fishing would have been most plentiful. The river’s water naturally attracted game, which supplemented the Bow's use for First Nations’ diets. The river’s game, its local sources for firewood, and its valleys’ shelter made the river a common camp location for First Nations during the prairie winters. The danger of crossing the river meant it was a natural boundary for First Nations. Thus, the two main fords of the lower Bow River, Blackfoot Crossing and a ford near the Bow’s convergence with the Elbow River (central Calgary today), became important gathering points for southern Alberta’s First Nations to exchange goods and celebrate festivities. Blackfoot Crossing was used by the Siksika as a winter campsite and is today a part of their reserve.

Fur traders began to move to the Bow River region following Thompson’s expedition. The Hudson’s Bay Company conducted its first investigation regarding a possible fort on the Bow River during the winter of 1822-23. The HBC concluded that the lack of beaver and the area’s general dangerousness would not make a fort worthwhile. Nevertheless, with Blackfoot trade being lost to American traders farther south, the HBC built Peigan Post in 1832 near present-day Canmore. Peigan Post was constructed on the Bow’s north shore and was significantly farther west than previous outposts. The post did not yield high returns; it lacked access to furs farther north of better quality and faced competition for Blackfoot trade from Americans to the south. Additionally, the local Piikani were at times hostile to the remote fort in territory they considered their own. All these factors contributed to Peigan Post’s closure in 1834 after only two seasons of operation. The HBC did not build another fort on the Bow River until 1874, this time at the mouth of the Ghost River. Whiskey traders were also active along the Bow River by this time. As a means to stop these operations, the recently formed North-West Mounted Police (later the RCMP) established Fort Calgary in 1875 at the confluence of the Elbow River and the Bow.

In order to proceed with railway construction through present-day Alberta and an orderly settlement of the Bow region, treaties with First Nations were needed to extinguish their title to specific lands. With bison numbers declining and white settlers becoming increasingly common in the region, the Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, Kainai, Piikanai, and Siksika met with representatives of the Canadian government at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River and signed Treaty 7 on 22 September 1877. First Nations elders maintained decades later that they viewed Treaty 7 as a peace treaty establishing a willingness to cooperate rather than a cession of land. However, excluding First Nations reserves, the Canadian government’s perspective was that these groups had now surrendered all their land privileges. The reserves of the Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, and Siksika were established along the Bow River.

First Nations
Fur traders began to move to the Bow River region following Thompson’s expedition, but the river was not used extensively in the fur trade. First Nations already weakened by declining buffalo numbers and disease were further devastated with the introduction of the whisky in 1869 when Fort Whoop-Up was established. Whisky traders were active along the Bow River during the 1870s. As a means to stop these operations, the recently formed North-West Mounted Police (later the RCMP) established Fort Calgary in 1875 at the confluence of the Elbow River and the Bow.

In order to proceed with railway construction through present-day Alberta and an orderly settlement of the Bow region, treaties with First Nations were needed to extinguish their title to specific lands. With bison numbers declining and white settlers becoming increasingly common in the region, the Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, Kainai, Piikanai, and Siksika met with representatives of the Canadian government at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River and signed Treaty 7 on 22 September 1877. From the perspective of the Canadian government, these groups had now surrendered all their land privileges outside of their reserves. The reserves of the Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, and Siksika were established along the Bow River.

Hydroelectric power, dams, and reservoirs
Calgary was growing rapidly after 1900. Pressure emerged for the city to receive cheaper power from hydroelectric sources. William Maxwell Aitken, later with R. B. Bennett, formed Calgary Power Company in 1910. In 1910, on property purchased from the Nakoda, Calgary Power began constructing Alberta’s first significant hydroelectric plant, Horseshoe dam.

There were problems for Calgary Power before this dam had even been completed in 1911. The Bow River originates from a northern mountain, and its flow varies considerably depending upon the amount and location of winter snowfalls. A comprehensive study of the Bow’s flow measurements had not been conducted. In its operations, Calgary Power relied upon estimates of the river’s minimum flow during winter conditions. Thus, despite the amount of energy the company had contracted, it could not reliably fulfill these obligations during winters. With capital already invested in Horseshoe, Calgary Power opened another hydroelectric plant and reservoir two years later on the Bow’s tributary, Kananaskis River. A reservoir was also created within Banff National Park in 1912 at Lake Minnewanka. Despite this additional reservoir and both plants, Calgary Power still struggled to fulfill its power contracts during winter months. The company began planning new projects to control the Bow River in the 1920s.

The Bow River’s hydroelectric development both conforms and contrasts with elements of conservationist ideology in the United States during this era. This ideology espoused that rational and planned resource development guided by technicians should benefit the greatest number of people possible. In this light, rivers could be seen as a series of interdependent parts, and engineering all of them could give technicians control over the system as a whole for the benefit of society.

Admitting their failure to plan effectively, Calgary Power stated in the 1920s that if it had understood the Bow’s stream flow in 1910, they would not have begun building dams. The hydroelectric development of the Bow continued based upon contingent choices made progressively to utilize capital invested earlier heedlessly. In this process, Calgary Power ultimately fulfilled conservationist ideology as it increasingly brought the Bow River’s interdependent sectors, and thus it as a whole, under control, while failing to embody conservationist ideals of rationally developing the Bow initially. Also in line with conservationism, bureaucrats espoused that the nation’s development as a whole superseded protecting a small part of Banff National Park’s nature when allowing the construction of the Minnewanka reservoir.

Calgary Power’s impromptu hydroelectric development of the Bow continued. Ghost dam was built in 1929; a major development on the Bow’s tributary, Spray River, was completed in 1951; and, at the behest of the provincial government, Bearspaw dam was built in 1954 just west of Calgary to control flooding. World War II's industrial demand proved again that the country’s needs were paramount: another hydroelectric development was built within Banff National Park, this time on Cascade River, a tributary of the Bow.

Between 1910 and 1960 the Bow River changed radically as it was systematically engineered to control its water flow and provide hydroelectric power. Summer flooding in Calgary was an issue of the past. Water was held by reservoirs during spring and summer, permitting steady power generation during fall and winter. Comparing 1924-33 and 1954-63, the Bow River’s January flow approximately doubled. Parts of the river, such as that preceding Ghost dam, had practically turned into lakes. These developments had ecological effects, too. For example, reservoirs allowed certain fish species, such as the brown trout, to outcompete others, while other species virtually disappeared.

The Bow River and environmentalism
The Bow River’s south bank in Calgary was a generally derelict commercial zone by the 1950s. The Calgary Local Council of Women was the most vocal advocate for turning this area into a park system as a part of a broader campaign for improved public and social services. City council agreed to the idea in 1955, but by 1959 little progress had been made to fund the project. To accommodate increasing traffic flow through the city, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the city began negotiating a CPR reroute that would follow the south bank of the Bow River, turning it into a parkway and the CPR’s rail mainline. Among the plan’s critics was the Local Council of Women, reminding the city of its 1955 promise for a river park. After negotiations between the CPR and Calgary ended in failure in 1964, (CP, 36-38) urban elites, such as golf clubs, increasingly endorsed the Local Council of Women’s idea for a park system.

Park advocates defined the Bow River within Calgary as the city’s nature: it was something to be protected for and enjoyed by the public. However, as progress was made in the parks’ creation, this “environmental” view of the Bow’s nature proved selective. For example, trees were not to be cut down, but landscaping to accommodate cyclists was endorsed. In short, the river was valued above all when it suited human goals. Calgary eventually developed an extensive plan for the Bow River’s park system and it is considered an important element of Calgary’s self-image today.

The grassroots advocacy done by the Local Council of Women denotes emerging environmental sensibilities that are representative of larger trends occurring in North America during this timeframe, which Samuel Hays associated with the emergence of an advanced consumer society. Unlike the pre-World War II elitist ideology of conservationist production, this emergent approach in North America was of grassroots consumers engaging democratically in environmental issues, and there was often tension between the public and managers of the environment.

These attitudes towards the Bow were also exemplified in the events unfolding after an Alberta Environment official discovered a toxic “blob” in the Bow in October 1989. Originating from an abandoned wood preserving plant on the Bow River’s bank, the “blob” in the river had released a carcinogenic plume that stretched over 250 kilometers downstream. Its discovery caused alarm in the media and amongst those living along the Bow River (two years earlier, 70% of Calgarians reported using the Bow recreationally).

As a result, Alberta’s premier, Ralph Klein, established a provincial advisory body, the Bow River Water Quality Council, composed of representatives from diverse interests such as First Nations, agriculture, and municipalities. The Council was to promote awareness of the river’s water quality and try to improve it through fact-finding and aiding inter-institutional coordination. Recreational groups represented on the council, such as Ducks Unlimited and Bow Waters Canoe Club, articulated concern for the river’s environment. Their attitudes were not strictly human-centric, but, like those favoring a park system in Calgary, they defined the Bow River as something for human use.

However, greater changes in attitude toward the river were manifest in the Bow River Water Quality Council’s reports over time. By 1994, they were emphasizing the importance of the Bow’s ecological balance as a whole for maintaining its water quality and quantity. In the mid-1990s, the upper Bow River began being treated explicitly biocentrically, putting nature’s needs before humans, as part of the larger pursuit of prioritizing Banff National Park’s ecosystems above human enjoyment of the parks as something valuable in and of themselves.