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| Calgary Heritage Park |
One place that we visited while in Calgary, was the Heritage Park. It is one of those places where they have brought together various old buildings and machinery to show how Calgary would have looked pre 1914.
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| Calgary Heritage Park |
It is an interesting place, and the people who work there do a good job of representing the people of the time and answering any questions.
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| Livingston House,Calgary Heritage Park |
One of the houses at the site is that of Sam and Jane Livingston. They also have Sam's gravestone, which claims him as the first European settler in the newly created Fort Calgary.
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| Calgary Heritage Park |
In fact he only arrived in 1876, about three years after a man called John Glenn, but he was an important figure nonetheless.
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| courting nook, Calgary Heritage Park |
Livingston settled in the area that is now the Glenmore Reservoir, and which takes its name from a school that he and Jane started up on their farm. The school was named after a village in Livingston's native Ireland.
The houses that you can look around are nicely set up and furnished. One has an alcove off the hallway that used to be a courting area for the daughters - giving them a little bit of privacy, whilst fulfilling the need to still be chaperoned.
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| Drew's Saloon, Calgary Heritage Park |
They also have Drew's Saloon, which featured in a popular painting of the Dead Man's Hand poker game where Jack McCall shot Wild Bill Hickok on 2 August 1876. That actually took place in Saloon 10 in Deadwood, Dakota, but apparently the saloon looked very like this one, which is why it was used for the painting. It is said that the Sundance Kid may well have drink here when he worked around Calgary before making his way down to Deadwood.
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| Calgary Heritage Park |
When looking at the painting, you are 'sitting' where Captain William R Massie was. He was injured in the shooting when the bullet that killed Hickok lodged in his hand. He supposedly left it there, and told people that when they shook his hand, they were shaking the bullet that killed Wild Bill. It appears that this may have been inaccurate, as the bullet was in the other arm, but I'm sure he got a few free drinks out of it.
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| Calgary Heritage Park |
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