Birthplace of Canada's national park system
Banff is where Canada's entire national park system began. Three railway workers stumbled onto hot springs on Sulphur Mountain in 1883, a dispute over who owned them followed, and the government settled it in 1885 by reserving the land publicly — creating the country's first national park and the template for every one after it. The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Banff Springs Hotel to give tourists a reason to ride the train west, and it still looms over the valley like a Scottish castle that took a wrong turn into Alberta. Turquoise glacial lakes, elk that wander through town like they hold the deed, and trailheads that start near Main Street give a town of roughly 8,000 residents a scale problem it has never solved.
