Canmore NWMP Barracks

The Northwest Mounted Police barracks, built in 1893, is Canmore’s third oldest building after the Canmore Hotel and the Ralph Connor Memorial Church. The barracks, which helps to tell the story of policing in the Bow Valley, and in Alberta and Western Canada, is also one of two provincial historic resources located in Canmore. The two Mounties stationed at Canmore constructed the barracks from logs cut with dovetail notches and chinking mixed from mud and straw. The Mounties also added an open veranda that was not part of the approved plan. Finally, they built a barn and a corral for their horses. Inside, the barracks included a jail, two bedrooms, an office, and a kitchen. Usually, the Canmore barracks were home to only one member of the NWMP at a time, occasionally two. In 1918, Corporal Charles H. Clarke moved into the barracks with his wife, Dora, and their five children. The Clarkes built an addition on the east side of the building in 1923 with a sitting room and another bedroom to better accommodate the family. The barracks are maintained as it was when the Clarkes lived there. The NWMP abandoned the barracks in 1929. The Department of Interior, which held the lease, at first rented the barracks but then sold them in 1931. The Town of Canmore bought the barracks in 1989, and a year later, the Alberta government declared it a provincial historic resource. Today, the Canmore Museum is the barracks caretaker. Today, the NWMP barracks is the only such barracks of its kind in Western Canada that is still on its original site. The Banff barracks was moved to Heritage Park in Calgary, while the barracks in Writing-on-Stone/Áísínai’pi Provincial Park is a reconstruction. On weekends in July and August experience the culture, language, and traditions of the Stoney Nakoda with their Stoney cultural interpreters. They also host a number of special programs throughout the summer to highlight aspects of traditional Stoney life. The Canmore NWMP Barracks is also home to a vast public garden. With over 500 heritage varieties of flowers and traditional vegetable crops, heritage gardens are a must-see for any garden enthusiast.