Fort Macleod, North-West Mounted Police Outpost
Named for Colonel James Macleod, First NWMP Fort Built in 1874
Oct 16, 2009
On a mission to find illegal alcohol by American whiskey traders and put some order to lawlessness, the newly-minted North-West Mounted Police sent a troop of men to Canada’s wild west in 1874. Under the command of Colonel James A. F. Macleod, the Mounties in their red serge coats trekked their way across the wilderness to Fort Whoop-Up, near what is now Lethbridge, Alberta. They found no alcohol, but did find that a police outpost would be most useful.
Fort Macleod Initially on an Island
Moving a little further west to an island in the Old Man River in mid-Autumn, Colonel Macleod and his men of 150-strong constructed a fort of wood, with buildings for living quarters, storage, the smithy and stables. The structure was 233 feet by 233 feet and named for the dedicated NWMP commander. Solidly constructed, Fort Macleod would be able to withstand attack, but the first fort could not withstand the floods that threatened destruction. In 1884, the fort and the small village growing up around it moved to dryer ground, two miles up-river to the present site. The North-West Mounted Police outpost was the first town in Alberta.
Colonel James Macleod, Lawyer and Militiaman
Born in Drynoch, Scotland in 1838, James Alexander Farquharson Macleod came to Canada with his family when he was eight years of age, moving to an area north of Toronto. Though his father encouraged James to become a lawyer, the young man graduated from Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario with a degree in philosophy and the classics. He then heeded his parent and attended the famous Osgoode Hall for training in law, at first failing the entrance exam twice. Passing the bar exam in 1860, according to Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, James practiced law and also participated in the militia in Bowmanville. More interested in the military activities, Macleod was given a Brigade Major commission. Leaving his law career behind, he was sent to the Louis Riel uprising occurring in the Red River district in Manitoba.
The North-West Mounted Police was established in 1873 as an official organization, the forerunner to today’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police. With his skills as a leader emerging, Macleod left his military post to be placed initially as Superintendent and then promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the NWMP. His talents were put to use in developing good relations with the native tribes of the area, the Blackfoot and the Blood, in particular. Because of Macleod’s participation, the native leaders were able to negotiate significant treaties that would prevent war. “It was, by most accountings, a well earned respect for Macleod. He was known for his fair dealings and his honesty, a true man of his word,” said Alberta Online Encyclopedia in the Treaty Makers.
James Macleod in Calgary
Later, since he held a law degree, Macleod was the prime candidate to become Magistrate in the Northwest Territories. He took up the position as Supreme Court Judge in February 1887, moving from Fort Macleod to Calgary. Married to Mary Isabella Drever in 1876, the Macleods had five children – one son and four daughters. James Macleod died at age 58 in Calgary on September 5, 1894 of Bright’s Disease, a diagnosis given for several forms of kidney disease.
The Railway at Fort Macleod
At first, the town of Fort Macleod flourished. The Transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway made the village an official divisional point, transforming the area into a hub for business, supplies and life. New businesses erupted in the early years. Between 1897 and 1903, the “Post Office building, Chinese Laundry, Reach Warehouse and Midnight News” sprung up, said the Fort Macleod website, and after the railway came through, “the Cowdry Bank, Grier Block, Queen’s Hotel, Union Bank, Court House and Young’s Drug Store” rounded out Main Street. Industry thrived too, with brickyards, quarries and sandstone mining, plus the essentials for western living such as a saddler, a liquor store and a meat store.
A boomtown until the 1920s, the events of World War One and the Great Depression hit disastrously hard blows on Fort Macleod, and the town did not fully recover until fifty years later, in the 1970s. Presently, Fort Macleod has a population of over 3,000 living and working in beautiful southern Alberta. Many of the Fort’s buildings have historic value under the federal government’s “Heritage Canada Main Street Program”.
Colonel James Macleod’s “vision of the region,” according to Canadian Dictionary of Biography Online, “was of a place where newcomers and the native population might live together in peace and where disputes could be settled by reason.”
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