CALGARY, ALBERTA. The rapidly growing city of Calgary is not only one of the most picturesquely situated towns of the Canadian Northwest, but it is also the largest and most important commercial center of the great prairie regions of Canada west of Winni peg. Lying at the junction of the Bow and Elbow rivers, girdled with swelling hills and the distant snow clad peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the city has scenery which is unsurpassed. Calgary sprang up with the coming of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, but has a substantial appearance not often found in the "boom" towns of the west. This comes from the fact that it was built largely of the gray stone which is quarried in the neighborhood.
An immense cattle-raising and wheat-growing region of about 150,000 square miles centers in Cal gary, which is the shipping as well as the distributing point for the entire district. It is also the chief supply station for the mines of the eastern Rockies. Stock yards, packing plants, flour mills, and grain elevators are the most important industrial establishments, though other manufactures are rapidly growing. Bis cuit boxes and breakfast foods are other products.
Hydroelectric power is supplied by the nearby rivers, and natural gas is piped in 100 miles from Bow Island. Petroleum has been found in the vicinity, but development is as yet on only a small scale.
Great areas of coal near by provide cheap fuel, and building stone is abundant. Calgary is also an im portant railway center, since it lies near the entrance to two passes through the Rocky Mountains. The street railway. waterworks, and asphalt paving plant are municipally owned; taxation is based on a modi fied form of single tax. Population, about 65,000.