| Fort Macleod | |
| Official Name: | Town of Fort Macleod |
| Other Name: | Macleod (1884–1952) |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Alberta |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Fort Macleod in Alberta |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Alberta |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Southern Alberta |
| Subdivision Type3: | Census division |
| Subdivision Name3: | 3 |
| Subdivision Type4: | Municipal district |
| Subdivision Name4: | Municipal District of Willow Creek No. 26 |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Brent Feyter |
| Leader Title1: | Governing body |
| Leader Name1: | Fort Macleod Town Council |
| Leader Title2: | Manager |
| Leader Name2: | Anthony Burdett |
| Leader Title3: | MP |
| Leader Name3: | John Barlow (Foothills) |
| Leader Title4: | MLA |
| Leader Name4: | Chelsae Petrovic (Livingstone-Macleod) |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Title1: | Incorporated[1] |
| Established Date1: | |
| Established Title2: | • Town |
| Established Date2: | December 31, 1892 (as Macleod) |
| Established Title3: | • Name change |
| Established Date3: | April 1, 1952 |
| Area Footnotes: | (2021) |
| Area Land Km2: | 22.54 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Population Total: | 3297 |
| Population Density Km2: | 146.2 |
| Timezone: | MST |
| Utc Offset: | −7 |
| Timezone Dst: | MDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −6 |
| Coordinates: | 49.7256°N -113.3975°W |
| Elevation Footnotes: | [3] |
| Elevation M: | 945 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code span |
| Postal Code: | T0L |
| Area Code: | +1-403 |
Fort Macleod is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, Colonel James Macleod. Founded as the Municipality of the Town of Macleod in 1892, the name was officially changed to the already commonly used Fort Macleod in 1952.[4]
The fort was built as a NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) square on October 18, 1874. The east side held the men's quarters and the west side held those of the Mounties. Buildings such as hospitals, stores and guardrooms were in the south end. Stables and the blacksmith's shop were in the north end.
The town grew on the location of the Fort Macleod North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) Barracks, the second headquarters of the NWMP after Fort Livingstone was abandoned in 1876.[5] Fort Macleod was originally established in 1874 on a peninsula along the Oldman River, then moved in 1884 to the present town location.[6] The Museum of the North-West Mounted Police is located in Fort Macleod.[7]
Once agricultural settlement and the railway came to the region, Macleod boomed. The town became a divisional point for the Canadian Pacific Railway and frontier wood construction began to be replaced by brick and sandstone. In 1906 a fire devastated the downtown and destroyed most of the wooden buildings. From 1906 to 1912 Macleod had its greatest period of growth, as more new brick and stone building replaced the destroyed wooden ones. Then in 1912 the CPR moved the divisional point and 200 jobs to Lethbridge, devastating the local economy. Fort Macleod ceased to grow, and in 1924 was forced to declare bankruptcy. Until the 1970s, the town's economy stagnated and the buildings from the turn-of-the-century remained untouched.[8]
In 1978 Alberta Culture started to inventory the downtown buildings, and in 1982 the downtown became Alberta's first "Provincial Historic Area". As well, Heritage Canada started a Main Street Restoration Project in 1982, aiming to preserve the sandstone and brick buildings, some dating back to 1878.[8] [9]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Fort Macleod had a population of 3,297 living in 1,342 of its 1,440 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 2,967. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.[10]
In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Fort Macleod recorded a population of 2,967 living in 1,226 of its 1,426 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 3,117. With a land area of 23.41km2, it had a population density of in 2016.[11]
The town is located in the Municipal District of Willow Creek No. 26, at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 3, on the Oldman River. It lies west of the larger community of Lethbridge, near the reserves of the Peigan and Kainai First Nations. It is also located close to the Waterton Lakes National Park.
The town is located 8km (05miles) north of the McBride Lake Wind Farm, one of the largest wind farms in Alberta. The wind farm has a capacity of 75 megawatts of electricity.
Fort Macleod experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb).
The community enjoys frequent breaks from cold spells in winter when the Chinook wind blows down-slope from the Rocky Mountains. A Chinook on 27 February 1992 caused the temperature to rise to 26.5C.[12]
The highest temperature ever recorded at Fort Macleod was 102F on 7 July 1896, 18 July 1910, and 17 July 1919.[13] [14] [15] The coldest temperature ever recorded was -49F on 2 February 1905, 17 December 1924, and 28 January 1929.
The town is home to the Fort Macleod Mustangs, Senior AA men's hockey team of the Ranchland Hockey League.[16]
Fort Macleod's local weekly newspaper is the Fort Macleod Gazette.[17]
A selection of historical newspapers from Fort Macleod have been digitized from microfilm and are available in the Southern Alberta Newspaper Collection from the University of Lethbridge Library digitized collections. Included are: Macleod Advertiser (1908–1913), Macleod Chronicle (1908–1909), Macleod Gazette (1897–1907), Macleod News (1916–1919), & Macleod Spectator (1912–1916).
The 2005 romantic drama film Brokeback Mountain was filmed in part in Fort Macleod. The laundry apartment is located at 2422 Third Avenue, where a sign is posted marking the "passionate reunion" of Jack and Ennis. Passchendaele was also filmed in Fort Macleod's historic downtown, which acted as a stand-in for Calgary circa 1915. Scenes involving the dust storm and Matthew McConaughey's character were also filmed in Fort Macleod in Christopher Nolan's 2014 film Interstellar, where the giant dust clouds were created on location using large fans to blow cellulose-based synthetic dust through the air.[19] Francesco Lucente's motion picture drama Badland was filmed mostly in Fort Macleod. Francesco Lucente lived in Fort Macleod from 1974 to 1978. His father Salvatore Lucente owned the American and Queens Hotels during that time.
The downtown historic buildings were also used in the 2021 film . This site was also used as a filming location for 2023 TV Series The Last of Us.