Heritage Park Historical Village

A steam locomotive puffs along a loop of track, a paddle-wheel steamer glides across a reservoir, and costumed staff in a prairie town serve bread baked in a wood-fired oven. Heritage Park Historical Village is Canada's largest living history museum, spread across about 127 acres on a peninsula of the Glenmore Reservoir, a dammed stretch of the Elbow River, in southwest Calgary. It opened in 1964 and has grown to include well over a hundred historic buildings and exhibits, many of them moved from across western Canada and carefully reassembled on site, so that walking through it means travelling through the decades.

The village is arranged by period. A fur-trade fort recalls the early 19th century, when trappers and traders dealt with the First Nations of the plains. Settlers' log cabins and farmsteads show life on the first homesteads of the 1880s, and a bustling prairie town of about 1910 stands along a main street with a bank, a hotel, a bakery, a church and a school, along with the railway station that brought the town to life. Costumed interpreters in each building explain the work and routines of their trades, and visitors can often join in, from watching a blacksmith at the forge to eating a fresh cinnamon bun. The Wainwright Hotel, a grand railway-era building, serves meals in period style.

Transportation is a theme. A working steam train from the Canadian Pacific Railway tradition circles the park, and a vintage streetcar clangs along its own line. The S.S. Moyie, a sternwheeler built in 1898 for service on Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, is the oldest surviving passenger sternwheeler in Canada, and it carries passengers on short cruises across the Glenmore Reservoir in summer. Gasoline Alley Museum, an indoor gallery, holds one of the largest collections of vintage cars, trucks and petroleum memorabilia in the country, and it traces the arrival of motoring on the prairies. An antique midway, with period rides, adds amusement for children.

The historic village runs mainly in the warmer months, with weekend and holiday programming outside the peak summer period, while Heritage Plaza and Gasoline Alley Museum are open for more of the year. Visitors should check the park's website for current seasons, hours and admission, since they change.

Heritage Park is reached by car, with parking on site, and by Calgary Transit, with the Heritage C-Train station in the area and connecting buses. Wear comfortable shoes and allow a full day, particularly with children.