Calgary

Calgary was named after Calgary Castle (in Scottish Gaelic, Caisteal Chalgairidh) on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. Colonel James Macleod, the Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, had been a frequent summer guest there. In 1876, shortly after returning to Canada, he suggested its name for what became "Fort Calgary". The Treaty 7 or southern Alberta First Nations peoples, refer to the Calgary area as "elbow", in reference to the sharp bend made by the Bow River and the Elbow River. In some cases, the area was named after the reeds that grew along the riverbanks, reeds that had been used to fashion bows. In the Blackfoot language (Siksiká), the area is known as Mohkínstsis akápiyoyis, meaning "elbow many houses", reflecting its strong settler presence. The shorter form of the Blackfoot name, Mohkínstsis, simply meaning "elbow", is the popular Indigenous term for the Calgary area. …

The Calgary area was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence traces back at least 11,000 years. The area has been inhabited by multiple First Nations, the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy; Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), îyârhe Nakoda, Tsuutʼina peoples and, under the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Constitution, the Calgary Nose Hill Métis and Calgary Elbow Métis Districts (previously known as Métis Nation, Region 3). In 1787, David Thompson, a 17-year-old cartographer with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), spent the winter with a band of Piikani Nation encamped along the Bow River. He was also a fur trader and surveyor and the first recorded European to visit the area. John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. In spring 1875, three priests – Lacombe, Remus, and Scollen – built a small log cabin on the banks of the Elbow River. …

Calgary is in southwestern Alberta and also next to the Rocky Mountains, lying in the transition zone between the Canadian Rockies Foothills and the Canadian Prairies. The city lies within the foothills of the Parkland Natural Region and the Grasslands Natural Region. Calgary is about 80 km (50 mi) east of the Canadian Rockies themselves, 280 km (170 mi) south of Edmonton, approximately 240 km (150 mi) north of the border with the United States, 295 km (183 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat, and 279 miles (449 km) northeast of Spokane, the second-largest city in the U.S. state of Washington. The city is at the southern end of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor, a Statistics Canada-defined urban region. Downtown Calgary is about 1,042.4 metres (3,420 feet) above sea level, and the airport is 1,076 m (3,531 ft). In 2016, the city covered a land area of 825.56 square kilometres (318.75 sq mi). …