Things to do in Alberta, Alberta: The Best Historic Sites

When you have the choice of everything from a thundering steam train to antique midway rides to beautifully preserved heritage buildings and homesteads, deciding what to do first isn't easy. Located in Calgary, Alberta, Heritage Park is Canada's largest living history museum, with hundreds of exhibits, rides, shops, restaurants and daily demonstrations and activities to keep the young and the young-at-heart captivated in the past. No two days at the Park are the same, so come back as often as you like for a history lesson you won't find in any textbook. Our operating season is from mid-May to early October each year.

Park featuring recreations of Edmonton in different stages of its history.

Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump is temporarily closed, effective March 17, 2020. Head-Smashed-In is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps in North America. The site has has an archaeological record that goes back 6,000 years. This World Heritage Site is open year round and offers an Interpretive Centre and walking trails. Blackfoot Guides interpret the plains buffalo culture.

Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site was the home of the first Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron Rutherford. In 1911, A.C. Rutherford, his wife Mattie and their family moved into this beautiful brick mansion near the university campus. The family entertained friends, relatives and influential Edmontonians for more than a generation. Today, this restored and furnished Edwardian-era home maintains the Rutherford tradition of hospitality and offers visitors a glimpse into the past with costumed interpreters, guided tours and special events.

Peace, tranquillity and friendship await you at the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden. The gem of Southern Alberta is celebrating it's 50th year with cultural activities and the very best omotenashi (hospitality) every day. Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden season officially begins Saturday May 13th and the season runs to Sunday October 8th. Enjoy the Lethbridge Japanese Garden from the first spring blossom to the final autumn leaf.

John Walter Museum is a small facility located in the heart of the river valley. The site interprets the life of John Walter and the Strathcona community of Walterdale from 1875 to 1920. We tell the story of a rugged Scot who came from the Orkney Islands to Canada in 1870 to build York boats for the Hudson's Bay Company. Five years later John Walter acquired River Lot 9, located between present day 105th and 107th Street, University Avenue to the North Saksatchewan River. Here he built one of the first permanent residences on the south side on the river. Along side that residence he also built a ferry. Through numerous business ventures (ferry operations, general store, lumber mill a coal mine to name a few) he became one of Edmonton's foremost entrepreneurs and a community, Walterdale, formed around him. Other folks began business and soon Walterdale was home to Pollard Brothers Brick Yard, Bedard Tannery, a brewing company, blacksmith and school.

The Bar U Ranch is the only Parks Canada-administered National Historic Site that commemorates the importance of ranching to Canada. Founded in 1882 as the Northwest Cattle Company, the Bar U was one of the first and most enduring of the large corporate ranches established in southern Alberta. Three key personalities guided the ranch through seven decades of change up to 1950: Fred Stimson set the foundation and infrastructure for the Bar U Ranch, which under George Lane achieved international repute as a centre of breeding excellence for cattle and purebred Percheron horses. Patrick Burns and his company modernized the ranch by replacing horses with tractors and streamlined operations which took the Bar U though the depression and World War II. Explore one of the largest collections of original buildings in Canada. Treasures include the blacksmith shop, harness repair shop, roundup camp and saddlehorse barn. Taste the freshly-baked cookies at the cookhouse, hear the clattering hooves of our Percheron team and smell the cowboy coffee roasting over an open fire. Experience life on the ranch from 100 years ago. On the doorstep of the Rocky Mountains, the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site is only an hour’s drive from Calgary.