Calgary is the largest city in Alberta and was named after Calgary Castle (on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.

Pre-Clovis people inhabited the Calgary area, whose presence traces back at least 11,000 years. Multiple First Nations have inhabited the area, the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy; Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), îyârhe Nakoda, the Tsuutʼina peoples and Métis Nation, Region 3.

In 1787, David Thompson, a 17-year-old cartographer with the Hudson's Bay Company, spent the winter with a band of Piikani Nation encamped along the Bow River. He was the first recorded European to visit the area.

In the fall of 1875, the site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). The NWMP detachment was assigned to protect the western plains from US whisky traders and to protect the fur trade.

In the spring of 1876, Fort Calgary was officially established and in 1877, the First Nations ceded title to the Fort Calgary region through Treaty 7.