In 1873, the North West Mounted Police force was created to bring law and order to the Canadian North West.  This gallery explores some of the highlights of the Force's history and development through a century and a quarter of service to Canada, and to the Fort Macleod community in particular.  Since their genesis in 1873, the Mounted Police have gained world wide recognition for their role as an effective police force.

Known today as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they have become a symbol of Canadian pride.

Reliable transportation is essential in Western Canada.  The land can be unforgiving, the weather swings between extremes, and travel is long.  In the 1870s, a good horse was invaluable, and was central to the success enjoyed by the North West Mounted Police.

By the 1880s, the railway burst onto the prairie landscape.  It scared the wildlife, and made the Native people fear losing their lands and their rights.  The railway did make dramatic changes in the west.  The population exploded, the economy boomed, and the work of the Mounted Police increased and changed.  The Mounted Police had to keep pace with the times, and the lawbreakers, to maintain law and order.  After 1900, they quickly added motorcycles and cars to their equipment. Today, the historic mount of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - the horse - retains a place of honor in ceremony.

The Missionaries of all faiths played a significant role in the settlement of Western Canada.  This chapel captures the heart of early churches scattered across southern Alberta.  Of notice is the altar, built by Canon Haynes, with the Blackfoot syllabics which read "Holy, Holy, Holy".

The rich grasses and sheltered rivers of the western prairies is ideal grazing land.  By the 1880s, the vast buffalo herds which had thrived on these grasslands were hunted to near extinction.

The First Nations people had signed treaties and accepted the new laws, but faced starvation with no buffalo to hunt.  Cattle were a natural substitute, and they flourished when introduced to the northern range.  With a local market in the First Nations people and the North West Mounted Police, and the promise of a railway link to the eastern marketplaces, the conditions were right for ranching. Many of the first North West Mounted Police invested in small ranches and some convinced their wealthy eastern friends to join them.  Big ranch companies began to appear, financed with British and Canadian money.  To stock the range, ranch managers brought thousands of cattle and hired American cowboys to trail them north from the United States.  Settlement continued to increase into the 1890s, and the Mounted Police kept a watchful eye on the newcomers.

Constantly patrolling both town and trail, the North West Mounted Police made sure that the new Canadian ranching frontier was peaceful and law abiding.

The early doctors, dentists and nurses were important in the opening of the Canadian West.  Often the medical staff and facilities operated by the North West Mounted Police were the first in a region.  This exhibit highlights the instruments and equipment which they used in their tireless efforts.

This exhibit is housed in the Kanouse Trading Post, one of the Museum's original 19th century buildings which sit on their original sites.

Under development, the Trade and Commerce exhibit examines how trade changed dramatically with the arrival of the North West Mounted Police.  The appearance of the NWMP in southern Alberta transformed whiskey traders into shopkeepers, whose ranks were joined by retiring Mounted Police and others who ran businesses and services for the growing settlement in southern Alberta.

Sir Frederick W.G. Haultain was the first practicing lawyer in Fort Macleod.  The authentic restoration of his original law office and living quarters shows the details of his early career.  Haultain went on to become premier of the North West Territories in 1897.

First Nations People produce items of striking beauty and skill in execution.  The "Art of Adornment" exhibit explores the artistry of First Nations decorative work to understand it as an expression of spirituality.

The artifacts in this gallery are superb examples of the skills and means of fine design craftsmanship by First Nations people.  These designs were based in aesthetic traditions that commonly reflected symbolic systems and values, many religious in nature.  These traditions date back to the earliest human occupation of the region, more than 10,000 years ago.  The arrival of Europeans resulted in the introduction of new materials, designs and techniques.

First Nations people quickly embraced the elements that appealed to their own aesthetic sense, reinterpreting them in terms of the frameworks of their own culture. While this gallery focuses on items from 1860 to 1930, the tradition of artistry that is here represented persists to this day as elders teach these skills to a younger generation and through a First Nations fine arts tradition that has emerged in the 20th century.

This gallery is used to host temporary exhibits highlighting the history of Southern Alberta and the history of the North West Mounted Police

Each of the four blockhouses presents photographs and interpretation of one of the following topics: the original fort on the island; first nations and metis of SW Alberta; the new fort known as "the barracks"; early businesses of Fort Macleod.