Established in 1885 by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, this was the first National Park in Canada and the third in the world. With the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1885, the CPR quickly saw that profit could be made by building a grand hotel in the mountain wilderness west of Calgary and carrying passengers to it on their rail system. Thus the beginning of the park was the construction of the
Banff Springs Hotel, a large, magnificent structure, adjacent to natural hot springs near the present town of Banff. The hotel, the
hot springs and the mountains worked their magic and the new park was soon a very popular destination in the new activity of tourism.
Next came
Chateau Lake Louise, another magnificent hotel built by the CPR on the eastern shore of what has become the world's most photographed lake.
Adding to the attraction, in 1928 the now famous
Banff Springs Golf Course, designed by the renowned Stanley Thompson, was built. Over the years the park has evolved into one of the world's most visited national parks. It has become a summer vacation spot and a winter ski mecca with several ski hills in the park and dozens of runs and dozens of ski lodges. The area boasts some of the world's best powder skiing.
The only town of any size in the park,
Banff provides all the tourist amenities any fussy tourist could ask for.
The park itself is 6641 km2 (2564 sq mi) in size, encompassing the Columbia Icefields, (the headwaters of rivers running to the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans rise here), many alpine lakes, forests, meadows, mountain rivers, and, of course the majestic snow capped Rocky Mountains.