Still Cowboy at Heart: A Calgary Walking Tour with History Wrangler

Calgary grew from a frontier fort into a booming energy capital, but its cowboy soul never faded. On this walking tour, you'll trace the city's transformation from Wild West outpost to modern metropolis. You'll also hear rollicking tales of Stampede legends, oil barons, and Mounties who shaped Alberta's identity.

The tour starts at The Bow building's Wonderland sculpture, a three-storey wire head symbolizing the city's future. From there, you'll pass the historic Lougheed Building and Grand Theatre, where Fred Astaire once performed, before wandering Stephen Avenue Mall's Chicago-style facades. You'll walk beneath the towering Calgary Tower and through the striking Calgary Public Library, whose ceiling was inspired by Chinook cloud formations.

Along the Elbow River, you'll learn how the buffalo's disappearance devastated Blackfoot life, and discover the living tradition of Elbow River Camp, where Treaty 7 nations still raise tipis each Stampede. You'll pass Fort Calgary's Métis houses and Deane House, hearing firsthand accounts from the North-West Mounted Police officers who once patrolled this frontier. The tour ends at the Stampede grounds' By the Banks of the Bow statue, honoring the cowboys, cowgirls, and horses who built Calgary's rodeo legacy.

On this 90-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Step inside the Municipal Building to see a lion modelled after London's Trafalgar Square statues
• Visit CKUA Radio, Canada's first public radio station, broadcasting since 1927
• Explore Studio Bell, home to the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and Canadian Music Hall of Fame
• Hear how Lady Agnes Macdonald rode a train's cow catcher through the Rockies in 1886
• Discover the King Eddy, once Canada's Home of the Blues, rebuilt brick by brick
• Learn why Tom Three Persons became the first Canadian to win the Stampede's Saddle Bronc title
• See the site where the 2013 flood submerged the Saddledome under 15 feet of water

Come hear Calgary's story from a born-and-raised storyteller who's performed at the Olympics and written the Stampede's official centennial history. Yahoo!