If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 507

 

 

 

 

The Three Sisters, Alberta, Canada

 

Double L. Color Productions, Ltd. Of Canada published and distributed this unused postcard with a photo by Bruno Engler.  At the upper left on the reverse is a small Canadian flag and the identifier L-550.  The picture appears to have been taken from Policeman Creek trail along the Bow River in the foreground.  This card was among several others purchased at a local antique mall. 

 

The mountains, located near Canmore, Alberta and guarding the entrance to Banff National Park, are known individually as Big Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Sister by both the First Nations people and the European settlers.  In native lore, an old man or trickster would promise the three sisters in marriage whenever he was in trouble.  The first mention of the name by a European came in 1883 when Albert Rogers looked out of his tent after a heavy snowstorm and noticed the three snow covered peaks, commenting to his companions, “Look at the Three Nuns.”  Later they were renamed the Three Sisters on the 1886 map made by George Mercer Dawson. 

 

The Bow River’s source is the Bow Glacier, part of the Wapta Icefield, in the Canadian Rockies.  The river winds through the Alberta foothills and then to the prairies, joining the Oldman, South Saskatchewan, and Nelson rivers eventually flowing into Hudson Bay.  The Bow name refers to reeds that grew along the banks of the river and were used by First Nations to make hunting bows.  The Blackfoot people called it “the river where the bow reeds grow.”

 

The river is an important source of irrigation water and drinking water.  It and its tributaries also were engineered to provide hydroelectric power, between 1910 and 1960, primarily for use by Calgary.  This has significantly impacted the river’s flow and some of the ecosystems.

 

The town of Canmore, Alberta, is about 50 miles or 81 km west of Calgary near the southeast boundary of Banff National Park.  A coal mining town, it was named in 1884 for Malcolm III of Scotland, whose nickname was Canmore (Gaelic for “Big Head”), by the then Canadian Pacific Railway director Donald A. Smith.  As coal mining diminished the economic future of the town was uncertain until it was designated as host to Nordic events in the 1988 Winter Olympics.  Today Canmore has become a recreational tourist destination.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/The_Three_Sisters_(Alberta)

https://en.wikpedia.org/Bow_River

https://en.wikipedia.org/Canmore,_Alberta