Several classic Hollywood films of the 1950s depicted famous movie stars being swept over Bow Falls, including Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum… even the son of Lassie. While at Banff in 1953 Mitchum did his share of fly fishing below the falls while filming “The River of no Return” as Marilyn Monroe nursed an injury and relaxed at the Banff Springs Hotel.
Check out the Banff photos of her in the book “The lost LOOK Photos“

Bow Falls – 1887 – by William F. Notman – Courtesy of McCord Museum

Bow Falls is a major waterfall, on the Bow River, Alberta just before the junction of it and the Spray River. The Bow River flows some 623 kilometre’s from the the ice cold Bow Glacier to the Hudson Bay. Although the falls are small in size and only drops a few metres, they attract millions of tourists with some days near 50 bus loads of people stopping by. To me, a favourite place that is full of history and love the changes to the falls with the seasons.

Photo by J.Borno – The Picture Window

The Bow River tumbles over a cliff-like rise formed from sloping layers of limestone and one of the most interesting geological notes is, the falls and river are bisecting two very different rock formations, one of which is 70 million years older than the other.

Photo by J.Borno – The Picture Window

In pre-glacial times Bow River initially flowed north of Tunnel Mountain through Cascade Valley and Lake Minnewanka; later the valley became cut off by retrograde erosion, causing the river to flow between Fairholme Range and Tunnel Mountain.

Photo by J.Borno – The Picture Window

The GOOGLE location of the Bow Falls

Winter scene of Bow Falls
Photo by J.Borno – The Picture Window

Visit The Picture Window for larger and more photos of the Bow Falls and Bow River

Enjoy some old photos of Banff courtesy of McCord Museum and photos by William Notman.

Banff Springs Hotel and Bow Falls – 2012
Photo by J.Borno

Banff Springs Hotel and Bow Falls – 1887

Bow River Valley from Banff Springs Hotel 2011
Photo by J.Borno

Bow River Valley from Banff Springs Hotel 1887

Banff Springs Hotel 1925

At the Hot Springs, Banff National Park, Banff, AB, about 2010

At the Hot Springs, Banff National Park, Banff, AB, about 1887

Bow River, Bridge and Main Street Banff, AB, 2011

Bow River, Bridge and Main Street Banff, AB, 1903

Bow River Falls, Banff, AB, 2011
Photo by J.Borno

Bow River Falls, Banff, AB, 1904

Cascade Mountain and Banff, AB, 2011
Photo by J.Borno

Cascade Mountain and Banff, AB, 1909

Banff from Tunnel Mountain, AB, about 2010

Banff from Tunnel Mountain, AB, about 1887

On the light side today! Enjoy!

This photo placed in the top 15 for a Creative Challenge at Webshots entitled “Falling Water”
This photo was taken while touring the Great Bear Rainforest in 2011

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One of my photo’s from Bow Falls – Banff is a featured photo on Webshots.

Featured Photo – WEBSHOTS

Hang around WebShots and view a few of their 692,000,000 photos! You may be there for awhile!

If you can imagine, the Bow River was once referred to as a wooden river, used for 58 years to drive log’s from the Canadian Rocky Mountain’s downstream to Calgary.

In 1883 the Government of Canada anticipated the need for bulding materials and advertised for tenders for ten timber berths covering about 500 square miles on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains in the Bow Valley. The timber was sold to the highest bidder. Four of the timber births stradled the Bow River from Canmore to the base of Castle Mountain, west of Banff.

Timber Berth – Standing Timber

By 1885 logging had begun in the Bow Valley, in Banff National Park logging ended in the visible locations in 1890 but did continue in remote places until 1930. By 1887 the Bow River had turned into a classic Canadian log-driving river, a forest of timber connected to the Calgary Eau Claire sawmill by a swift flowing stream.

Logging Crews on the River

Early tourists to Banff would have watched logs shooting over the Bow Falls and meet up with the logs floated down the Spray River. At the meeting of the rivers in the pool below the falls the logs would be boomed and then sent on downriver through the shallow flats at Canmore, through the rapids at The Gap and out of the mountains into the foothills. At the mouth of the Kananaskis River another boom of logs joined the speedy journey over the Kananaskis Falls, the Horseshoe Falls, then through the Nakoda reserve, past Cochrane and on to Calgary.

Log’s being coaxed over Bow Falls, Banff

The first log drive in 1887 was a disaster, nine of the river drivers were swept over the Kananaskis Falls in their boat, six of the men were killed. Due to the windfalls and many boulders it took most of the summer to bring the logs down to Calgary.

Logs boomed on the Bow River near Kananaskis – 1897

Nonetheless this drive established a pattern that would become a seasonal ritual. For a few months starting in late May, gangs of thirty to forty men would dangerously and with tremendous physical labour coax a ten mile fleet of logs downstream three or four miles a day until they reached Calgary.

Cruising the Bow River

Timber was cut every winter, floated to Calgary in spring, and sawed into lumber in summer and fall. In the off-season, crews would improve the river by constructing brush dams, haul out snags, dynamite to open tight channels, build flash dams to improve the flow and build lakes to store water for the drive.

Log destination – Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Co Ltd – Princes Island – Calgary

The height of production and the river drives covered fifty-eight years between 1886 and 1944. By this time most of the City of Calgary had been floated down the river. The construction of several hydroelectric dams on the Bow made it more difficult and costly to continue the regime of the wooden river.

Kananaskis Falls, Seebee – 1894 – Six men were swept over the falls to their death in 1887

Kananaskis Falls, Seebee – 2005

Horseshoe Falls on the Bow River 3 km north of Kananaskis Falls – Built 1911