Calgary & Southern Alberta

John Palliser and Company: Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

John Palliser, a wealthy Irish landowner, led the British scientific expedition into Rupert's Land from 1857 to 1859. He was accompanied by geologist-doctor James Hector, and other experts such as the French botanist Eugene Bourgeau. Supported by the Royal Geographical Society and the British government, Palliser's expedition collected scientific data, provided information on native peoples, and considered the possibilities for constructing transportation facilities in the area. Palliser claimed that while the semi-arid area was ill-suited for civilisation, a northerly fertile belt could maintain stock-raising and agriculture.

The expedition's report included excellent accounts of the wildlife then present on the prairies. It recorded, for example, that on July 31, 1858 members of the expedition heard an enormous herd of bison well before they actually saw it. "[The animals] were in such numbers that their grunt sounded like the roar of distant rapids in a large river, and caus[ed] a vibration also something like a trembling in the ground." (Irene Spry, ed., The Papers of the Palliser Expedition 1857-1860. Toronto: The Champlain Society, p. 258.)

Britain received the published report in 1863 with little interest. Canadian expansionists, however, found the discussion of a fertile belt enticing, as it bolstered their desire to annex the region. The expansionists were further encouraged by the Canadian expedition of Henry Youle Hind and Simon Dawson, 1857-1858, which made a more positive assessment of the region's agricultural potential than did Palliser's.

Henry Hind, geology and chemistry professor at Trinity College, Toronto, accumulated the scientific data on the expedition, while Simon Dawson studied the transportation possibilities. Like Palliser, Hind believed the Great American Desert extended to the prairies and maintained that what is now extreme southern Alberta was essentially sterile. However, Hind's 1860 Narrative provided a map of the fertile belt along the North Saskatchewan Valley that included a much larger area of fertility than had been previously accepted. While the existence of a semi-arid region remained a cautionary tale, the possibility of an agrarian Eden fuelled the expansionist goals of a new nation.