For thousands of years Alberta, Canada was host to Indigenous Peoples who lived, hunted big game, trapped and fished in the area. It was also home to sacred places and healing in the mineral hot springs. When Europeans began exploring the area in the 17th Century, the Indigenous Peoples began trading hides and furs and acted as guides into the next century.

In the 1870s the Canadian Pacific Railway embarked on an ambitious plan to build a coast-to-coast train route across Canada.  In 1883, the township of Banff was originally referred to as “Siding 29,” which was a temporary rail stop along the route. During construction, several rail workers discovered the hot mineral springs (Cave and Basin) on current day Sulphur Mountain and the developers took note.

They realized the tourist potential of these springs that were surrounded by the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and quickly claimed the area. George Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), chose the name in 1884, after his ancestral home in the Banffshire region of Scotland.

In 1885, Canada stepped in to create a reserve to protect the area – naming it the  “Rocky Mountains Park of Canada” and thus becoming Canada’s first national park. Nonetheless, the township of Banff grew quickly. This growth included hotels for travelers with  the Fairmont Banff Springs (originally Banff Springs Hotel) built to be one of the most luxurious hotels in the world.  It was constructed by William Cornelius Van Horne, the General Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway, to encourage railway travel. Referred to later as the Castle of the Rockies, it was built in 1886-1888.

More than 130 years later, Banff and the surrounding area, including Lake Louise, continue to attract visitors and conference attendees from around the world. In 1984, the Banff National Park was included in the “Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks” UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognizing its “exceptional natural beauty” and “striking mountain landscape”.

According to the Calgary Herald newspaper, Banff National Park welcomed 4.230 million visitors in April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025.