About

Nature in the City

Edworthy Park is one of Calgary’s most ecologically and historically layered landscapes. Located on the south banks and Shaganappi slopes escarpment above the Bow River, about five kilometres west of downtown, the park contains varied natural environments.

These include rough fescue meadows and coulee slopes along the upper plateau, aspen parkland and Douglas fir-white spruce mixed forests on the slopes, and riparian cottonwood balsam forest and wetlands near the riverbank. They provide over 400 of acres of natural habitat and green space for dozens of species of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, including humans, to enjoy.

🦉You can check out some of the species recorded in the park on the iNaturalist app and website. 

The park is also home to one of the easternmost natural stands of Douglas Fir in North America, a notable outlier of a species more commonly associated with the Rocky Mountains and coastal regions. These trees persist here due to a unique microclimate, where shaded north-facing slopes and Chinook-influenced conditions create a relatively wet, mild, and sheltered environment.

Historic Cultural Landscapes

The lands that make up Edworthy Park are within the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations, and are also part of the homeland of the Métis. For thousands of years, the Bow River valley functioned as a vital travel corridor and source of water, food, and shelter for Indigenous peoples, with its seasonal rhythms shaping patterns of movement and use. 

In 1881, Senator Matthew Henry Cochrane leased approximately 144,000 hectares of land west of Fort Calgary from the Government of Canada for the Cochrane Ranche. Then, in the summer of 1883, an Englishman named Thomas Edworthy arrived in the area and “squatted” on some of the land leased to the Cochrane Ranche in what is now Edworthy Park.

Because of the very harsh winters of the early 1880s, the operations of the cattle ranch were moved southward and eventually the Government of Canada opened up some of the previously-leased land for homestead applications. After applying for permission to enter on specific lands, and paying a small sum, homesteaders had to fulfil certain occupancy or residence requirements for a specified period of time and establish that they had made improvements to the land. Having started off as a squatter — without a legal right to be on the land —  Thomas Edworthy eventually acquired title to the land by homesteading it. There he established the Shaganappi Ranch.

Over the following decades, sandstone quarries along the escarpment supplied material for many of Calgary’s early buildings, including many of those still found today on Stephen Avenue. The flatter Lawrey Gardens, on the eastern side of the park, were cultivated as a market garden and family farm. A Canadian Pacific rail line, constructed through the valley in the late 19th century, remains an active presence along the river.

As Calgary expanded, portions of this land were gradually set aside for public use, and in 1962 the City formally established Edworthy Park. At various points the city has considered using corridors within the park for transportation, including by extending Sarcee Trail down the coulee containing Edworthy Road, but local communities and the Heritage Society have always succeeded in persuading the city to preserve the park's natural environment instead.

Today, the park remains part of Calgary’s broader river valley park system, combining a rich natural and cultural history with a key habitat corridor and recreational space for residents and visitors to our city.

About the Society

Founded in 1991, the Edworthy Park Heritage Society has advocated to preserve the park's natural environment, shared its natural and cultural history, and supported ongoing respectful public access, including by leading the effort to reconstruct the renowned Douglas Fir Trail in the 1990s.

The Society's most recent large project involved publishing Shaganappi Point: A New History, a groundbreaking natural and cultural history. An earlier book project was Treasures of the Trail, a guide to natural history and walking loops in the park. While now out of print, copies of these books can be borrowed from the Calgary Public Library.

Society Governance

The Society is made up of volunteer members and a board of directors. An annual membership costs $10 and we are actively recruiting new board members to join us. 

Do you love Edworthy Park? 

We are actively recruiting for new members of the Society and our board. Please email our secretary, Kelden Formosa, at eparkhs@gmail.com to sign up to be a member.