The town of Canmore, a 45-minute drive west from Calgary city limits, was named in 1884 by Donald A. Smith, an employee of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The name originates in Scotland, ostensibly in honour of King Malcolm III. The anglicized version of the Gaelic Ceann Mór, Canmore, has been variously translated as ‘big head’ or ‘great head’ or ‘chief.’.It recently got another reason to be ‘big headed.’.The town has placed in the Top 100 most loved destinations in the world on the 2023 Tourism Sentiment Index..It’s one of only three Canadian destinations on the list — the other two are Fernie, BC, and Niagara Falls in Ontario — with Canmore landing on the list at #95, with a tourism sentiment score of 23.73..The Tourism Sentiment Index is created by scanning approximately 1.6 billion online conversations and content pieces publicly available on about 21,330 global destinations..As per its website, “To calculate the score, we collect all the conversations and content around a destination and, through natural language processing, filter to those that are driven by a destination’s tourism experiences or products.” .“The remaining data is classified as positive, neutral or negative as artificial intelligence deciphers sentiment from human expression.”. CanmoreCanmore .In 1886, Queen Victoria granted a coal mining charter to the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company and in 1887 the first mine was opened..Canmore became an important stop for the CPR to load up on the coal used to power the locomotives of the day and was honey-combed with mine entrances. The mining stopped long ago in the town, but some of those entrances can still be seen just off a few of the fairways of the Stewart Creek Golf Club..The North West Mounted Police arrived in Canmore in 1890, with the original barracks being abandoned in 1929, becoming a private residence. In 1989 the barracks was purchased by the town and restored..Through the early 20th century many of the coal mines in the Bow Valley began to shut down. The nearby towns of Anthracite, Georgetown, and Bankhead closed down and many of the buildings and residents were relocated to Banff and Canmore. .In 1965, Canmore was incorporated as a town with 2,000 residents and remained a sleepy town, probably best known as a stop for travellers to get gasoline and food from outlets along the Trans-Canada Highway, but that all changed in 1988..The Canadian Olympic Development Association named Canmore to host the cross-country and biathlon events during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games..The Canmore Olympic Nordic Centre gained world-wide attention and still attracts visitors from all over the globe, catching the attention of property developers to build accommodations for the visitors, as well as homes for the growing population. .The town lies in the shadows of the Three Sisters mountains, Faith, Hope and Charity one of the most recognizable and photographed chains of mountains in the area..They are the namesake of Three Sisters Village, which opened in 2002, a defining event for Canmore. It basically is a suburb of the main town, located on the east end, featuring a broad range of housing, from $1 million-plus homes to low rise condominium buildings, that gave Canmore a distinct advantage over Banff, 10 minutes west..With Banff being in a national park, homes cannot be purchased, only leased, so the opportunity to own a home in Canmore, build equity, be close to world-class downhill ski areas and just over an hour from Calgary International Airport was highly appealing..The population of Canmore was 16,000 in the 2022 census, but that number increases on weekends as Calgarians, Edmontonians and people from other parts of Alberta go to their homes away from home in the town.. CanmoreCanmore .According to The Town of Canmore, it is “now a vibrant mountain lifestyle community and a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts. Today, Canmore embraces a vibrant mix of business owners and professionals, tourism operators and mountain guides, world-class athletes and families, artists, filmmakers, NGO headquarters, writers, and impressively active retirees.”.It's world-wide fame is also growing now thanks to the HBO blockbuster The Last of Us, which shot scenes in the town.
