Calgary is one of Canada's most distinctive metropolises, known as a boom town where fortunes are made and lost, an oil city, a cosmopolitan center, home of the world-famous Stampede, an Olympic city, and much more. The Story of Calgary is a concise, panoramic history that explores the city's major themes, influences, and achievements.

Beginning with a look at the prehistoric era when the region's unique prairie, foothill, and mountain geography evolved, The Story of Calgary goes on to describe the aboriginal presence in the area and the founding of the first North-West Mounted Police post, eventually named Fort Calgary, in 1875. Read about Calgary as a center for the cattle industry, the influence of the railways on the city's prosperity, the founding of the Stampede in 1912, the effects of the two world wars and the Depression, and the tremendous impact of the oil industry on Calgary's development.

The character of the city is here too: its reputation as a brash champion of entrepreneurial initiative, its lively western ambience, the unique flavour of Alberta politics that has sometimes led to clashes with Ottawa and the East, and the exceptional spirit of volunteerism that has made so many events from the Stampede to the Olympics so successful. Meet the colourful personalities in Calgary's history, including promoter Guy Weadick, founder of the Stampede, outspoken newspaperman Bob Edwards, suffragist Nellie McClung, cattle king Pat Burns, former premier Peter Lougheed, and Calgary's first Alberta-born mayor, Don Mackay, who promoted the tradition of giving white cowboy hats to visiting dignitaries.

The Story of Calgary is enlivened with more than forty archival photographs and a colour section of contemporary images of the city.

Fred Stenson has written sixteen books of fiction and non-fiction. Thing Feigned or Imagined: The Craft in Fiction is based on his experience as a writer of fiction and mentor . His cycle of historical novels, The Trade, Lightning and The Great Karoo have won and been nominated for many awards. The Trade (2000) and Lightning (2003) both won the Grant MacEwan Author’s Prize. The Trade also won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and the Edmonton Book Prize, and was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Award and short-listed for the Giller Prize. The Great Karoo was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2008. Stenson has been writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick, Grant MacEwan College, Calgary Public Library, the community of Whistler, and many other places. He has directed the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre since 2001 and mentored in its writing studios prior to that. He has been the wit columnist at Alberta Views Magazine for the entire fifteen-year life of the publication. He has also written over 150 films and videos.

Fred Stenson's profile page