Post World War II Hydro Developments

Clovis phase spear points used in present-day Alberta.

Clovis phase spear points represent the oldest hunting technology in Alberta, and indeed all of North America. These fluted, jagged stone points would be attached to a bone or wooden shaft and used to hunt enormous prey such as mammoths and mastodons.
Source: Historical Resources Management Branch, Archaeological Survey

Bow and arrow technology reaches present-day Alberta.

Bow and arrow technology in North America appears to have developed first in the Arctic before spreading south throughout the continent. The bow and arrow was ideally suited for use in the wide open spaces of the Great Plains, and was widely adopted across the region.
Source: Courtesy of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

The ‘Horse Revolution’ begins in present-day Alberta.

Horses were brought to North America by Spanish colonists in the sixteenth century. From the Spanish colony of New Mexico, horses spread across North America, reaching present-day Alberta in the 1730s. The adoption of the horse had a significant impact on the hunting/transportation patterns of Plains First Nations peoples.
Source: Royal Alberta Museum

Rocky Mountains National Park is established by the Canadian government.

One of the main attractions of the new park was the site’s natural hot springs. The luxurious Banff Springs Hotel, built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1888, pumped water from the hot springs into its swimming pools and treatment rooms. Tourists flocked to the site to take advantage of the water’s supposed therapeutic healing powers.
Source: Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, v263-na-3562

The Calgary Power Company is formed.

The founder of the company, Max Aitken, was initially drawn to the region by its vast hydroelectricity potential. The company would develop into Canada’s largest investor-owned utility. In 1981, the company changed its name to TransAlta Utilities Corporation, in order to better reflect its provincial reach.
Source: Photo courtesy of TransAlta

Voters of Alberta narrowly reject proposal for public ownership of electricity utilities.

The 1948 provincial election included a plebiscite concerning ownership of electricity utilities in Alberta. Rural areas largely voted in favour of public ownership, while urban voters (particularly in southern Alberta) supported a continuation of private ownership. In the end, the vote was extremely close, with public ownership defeated by a mere 151 votes.
Source: Image courtesy of Peel’ Prairie Provinces, a digital initiative of the University of Alberta Libraries

After the war, the need for new generating capacity remained strong. Many expected a collapse, but it failed to materialize. In fact, the economy was booming and demanding ever more power. The post war years, therefore, saw an aggressive building program. By 1947, Calgary Power had completed its Barrier Generating Station on the Kananaskis River about 11 km (7 mi.) upstream from the Bow River. With a head of 43 m (140 ft.) and a capacity of 13,000 kW, the plant had added 12 MW of new capacity. It is reported to have been the first remotely-controlled hydroelectric plant in Alberta and among the first in North America.

To meet the dual purposes of generating hydroelectric energy and increasing the low winter flow of the North Saskatchewan River at Edmonton and downstream, Calgary Power carried out an intensive search for possible storage sites on the North Saskatchewan River and its tributaries. Three new projects were also brought online in quick succession. These were the new Spray Lakes, Three Sisters and Rundle dams with a combined capacity of 65 MW. Most of this new power was coming from the Spray Hydroelectric Dam with its 275 metre drop. In 1954, Calgary Power finished the 17 MW Bearspaw Hydroelectric Dam just west of Calgary and a third generator was installed at the

Ghost Hydroelectric Dam, increasing its output to 51 MW. The next year the company had completed the last dams on the Kananaskis River, the Pocaterra Hydroelectric Dam, a 15 MW facility, and the Interlakes Hydroelectric Dam, a smaller 5 MW dam.

By the end of the 1950s, ideal sites for hydroelectric plants were rapidly diminishing. By this point a cubic metre of water through the Bow River system could generate power eight times before reaching Calgary, as the water would move progressively through a system of various dams and power plants. Without new spots for hydro power, power suppliers began to turn to steam-powered stations for additional expansion.

Despite the increasing amount of power generation focused upon coal and other fuels, hydroelectricity was far from finished in Alberta. The next phase of expansion took place in the 1960s when, under agreement with the provincial government, Calgary Power undertook its largest hydroelectric project. It constructed the Brazeau Hydroelectric Dam and reservoir on the Brazeau River, a tributary of the North Saskatchewan. The dam was completed in 1963 and the first generating unit was installed at the power plant in 1965, adding 355MW of generating capacity to the Calgary Power System.