Experience Edworthy Park: One of Calgary’s Oldest and Finest

“Edworthy Park –– Yours to Enjoy and Preserve Forever” was written on a sign posted near the entrance of Shaganappi Ranch when it was acquired in 1962 by the City of Calgary. From the beginning, the City’s Parks Department had realized that, although relatively small, Edworthy Park truly is a gem with a great diversity of natural habitats and rich history.

Edworthy Park spans part of the Shaganappi escarpment. An historic name dating back at least to the 1870s, Shaganappi is a Cree word meaning “rawhide” or “rawhide thong”.

What has been called Shaganappi Point to the east dates back much further and was known to the Blackfoot as a named, prominent landmark on their ancestral lands located between the sacred glacial erratic on Paskapoo Slopes and the sacred confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.

Thomas Edworthy

Courtesy of the Glenbow Musum (na-1494-26)

A surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Charles Aeneas Shaw described the area when he was there in the early 1880s:

“The only other difficult place [for locating the railway] was Shaganappi Point, about 5 miles West [of the then town] of Calgary, a perpendicular bluff some 300 ft high, between the foot of which and the river there was only a narrow margin. The Indians for generations used this cliff as a pound, driving buffalo over it, killing hundreds of them at a time…; there was a large pile of bones the full length of the cliff.”

Quarry Road Trail

At the east end of the area, Quarry Road Trail switchbacks as it traverses the Shaganappi escarpment. It was almost certainly a trail that led many Blackfoot to a winter camp, an area of plentiful firewood and food where a ford crossed the river.

Photo ©Edworthy Park Heritage Society

As you walk down the trail, you will see evidence of the oldest sandstone quarry in Calgary. It was owned by the Government of Canada from 1882. Where most of this sandstone was used remains a great mystery but some was supplied to government buildings in Regina, including the original post office, and jail, but not the Saskatchewan Legislature. It was built later on from Manitoba limestone.

The trail connects to the paved Bow River regional pathway which goes west to Lawrey Gardens.

Edworthy Park –– Shaganappi Ranch, Bow Bank Quarries

About a mile to the west lies Edworthy Park which is accessed from the west end of Spruce Drive where, just past Woodcliff United Church, it turns right (north) onto Edworthy Road and goes down a coulee to reach the Bow River.

It is named after Tom Edworthy who arrived in Canada at age 16 from England. After farming for some years in Ontario, he came west to the Calgary area in 1883 just months before the arrival of the railway. Inspired by the success of John Lawrey’s market garden to the east, Edworthy located his Shaganappi Ranch homestead on the alluvial plain about mile upstream from Lawrey. In addition to ranching and growing vegetables, Edworthy operated four sandstone quarries under the name Bow Bank Sandstone Quarries. In 1904, in a twist of fate, after he nursed Art Livingston back to health from typhoid, Tom Edworthy himself then succumbed to the disease.

Sandstone Outcropping of the Bow Bank Quarry

Photo ©Edworthy Park Heritage Society

Down the coulee on Edworthy Road, the prominent sandstone outcroppings of the main Bow Bank quarry may still be seen on the west side. Edworthy’s sandstone was widely used.

Brickburn

A pedestrian trail leads west from the parking lot to an area where John “Gravity” Watson owned a quarry. Sandstone from that quarry was used to build Historic City Hall. Watson also owned a brick-making operation. He sold the property in 1905 to Edward Henry Crandell who renamed the brick plant “Brickburn”. Often marked “Calgary” for Crandell’s company Calgary Pressed Brick and Sandstone, the bricks were used in many buildings in Calgary and elsewhere.

Soon, the park ends and becomes private property. To return to the parking lot double back. Alternatively, turn south at the interpretive sign onto Pond Lookout Trail. This is a walking trail which leads to a vantage point with views of Shaganappi Ranch House (not open to the public) and the river valley before continuing downhill to the parking lot.

Brickburn brick salvaged when Paget Hall was demolished

Photo ©Edworthy Park Heritage Society

Today, the historic Shaganappi Ranch, Edworthy Park, is a designated Municipal Heritage Resource.

A City Bylaw requires that nothing be taken from the Park but must be left for other visitors to enjoy. All photos and text ©Edworthy Park Heritage Society