Until my most recent visit to Canmore, I’d never heard of the Spur Line, despite having grown up in Banff, only a 26 km drive away. My lack of awareness notwithstanding, the Spur Line was an important part of the Canmore’s history from the late nineteenth century until 1979, crossing the Bow Valley to connect the mine to the CPR mainline.
The part of what became the Spur Line Trail from the iconic Canmore Engine Bridge to 7th Avenue has, in recent years, been turned into an Art Walk showcasing paintings created by artists, some of them children, from the town of Canmore and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation at Morley.
Paintings depicting wildlife found in the area and wide-ranging aspects
of community history, are done on boards prepared from timber cut along the
trail, then sealed to protect them from the mountain weather. The collection is a nice surprise in an
already spectacular walk.
